(from left) Chief Town Planner and Co-Chair of the National Habitat III Committee, Mark Cummins; Minister of Housing, Lands and Rural Development, Denis Kellman; and Co-Chair of the National Habitat III Committee, Economist, Jeremy Stephen at yesterday's press conference.

(from left) Chief Town Planner and Co-Chair of the National Habitat III Committee, Mark Cummins; Minister of Housing, Lands and Rural Development, Denis Kellman; and Co-Chair of the National Habitat III Committee, Economist, Jeremy Stephen at yesterday's press conference. 

Headway being made

Physical Development Plan aiming to address land, water and food shortages

 

The amended Physical Development Plan should be ready to present to the minister responsible for Town Planning, Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, by April 2017.
 
That’s according to Chief Town Planner and Co-Chair of the Habitat III Committee, Mark Cummins, who said that the Plan is currently 60 per cent complete. 
 
He made the disclosure yesterday during a press conference at the Ministry of Housing, Lands and Rural Development to update the media on Habitat III, the upcoming United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, which is being held in Quito, Ecuador from October 17-20. 
 
Cummins, who will be part of the Barbados delegation to the conference, which will be led by Minister of Housing, Lands and Rural Development, Denis Kellman, said that the background reports of the Plan have shown that there has been quite a bit of encroachment into the agricultural belt, which he noted is “not sustainable”. His comments came as he said that through the work being carried out with respect to the Plan, they have identified three scarcities in Barbados – land, water and food.
 
“So the policies of the amended Physical Development Plan will seek to address those issues. We’ve also found that approximately 66 per cent of Barbados can be considered as urbanised, which is slightly above the Latin America and Caribbean average, which I think is about 56 or 57 per cent… As a SIDS, Barbados maybe on its way to becoming a city state , so we do not have the challenges associated with rural to urban migration because you can move from North Point to Bridgetown and Bridgetown to North Point quite easily – if you are using public transport, hour-and-a-half, two hours. So we don’t have that situation whereby persons when they come to urban areas they need to find alternate housing, or in some cases where they cannot afford the housing you end up with lots of make-shift housing,” he said.
 
 
Referring to the current drought conditions affecting the island, Cummins said that in the Plan they also intend to protect the aquifers. As such, he explained that they have been engaging the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) and have tentatively identified additional sites across the island where desalination plants can be built in the future. The Chief Town Planner said that his office will be seeking to ensure that no development takes places in those areas, so that the country’s water needs can be met. Additionally, Cummins said consideration is also being given to renewable energy. He made the point while noting that the country is on record as transitioning to a green economy and the “fulcrum” of that move is renewable energy. He noted that the Plan is very comprehensive, indicating that renewable energy and water are but two of the 24 areas on which they did significant research and background reports on.
 
Cummins added that as they move to complete the Plan, they will be holding a series of community meetings starting January 15, 2017. These meetings, he added, will assist in preparing 10 community plans, which is double the number in the current Physical Development Plan.
 
“That fits in with what we have been saying that as a SIDS Barbados is quickly becoming a city state. If you use Six Roads as an example, the regional centre at Six Roads, if Six Roads is built out as it is supposed to be there is very little in terms of a service that you would not be able to get at Six Roads… We are seeking to reduce the transport time, the driving time, reducing the carbon emissions. If you need to come to Bridgetown then you would come to Bridgetown, but you would have other centres,” he said. (JRT)
 
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Minister of Housing, Lands and Rural Development, Denis Kellman making a point yesterday. 

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