Bostic stresses problems must be dealt with promptly

Opposition Member of Parliament for the City, Colonel Jeffrey Bostic insists that drainage issues being experienced in that area must be addressed.

 

Pointing to the flooding that occurs in several City districts during heavy downpours, he told the Lower House yesterday that while it may not be possible to end the problem, efforts of alleviation must come to the fore.

 

“I am not sure that throughout the last several decades we have really put the best brains together in terms of trying to find someway to ease the situation with flooding along the urban corridors,” he stated.

 

Bostic outlined that with more destructive storms resulting from climate change, more deaths were being created by flooding and storm surges than by wind activity; a problem, he said, which could put the entire urban corridor of Barbados in jeopardy.

 

Giving his support to the Barbados Green Economy Scoping Study, he stated that it was a massive undertaking which “we cannot afford to not afford”.

 

In a speech which touched on several areas, he also called into question problems being experienced with solid waste management.

 

“We really need to have discourse in terms of solid waste management and the production of solid waste. How do we deal with it at household level, at the community level, at the national level? There must be some conversation on this because going forward this problem is going to be a serious one that we all have to deal with and it is going to require a lot of change, in terms of attitude and in terms of habit, and that is not going to happen overnight. It has to be initiated now and we have to find some ways and means to talk to our constituents, to talk to our nationals, talk to our communities in order to have this problem dealt with significantly,” he stated. 

 

Commenting on public transportation, Bostic advised that going forward there must be a drive to utilising renewable energy in order to reduce fossil fuel use and ease the congestion in Bridgetown.

 

“We need to move expeditiously, because what we do now will affect how our country looks in the future,” he stated. (JMB)