Advanced plans are being made for the rehabilitation of the Owia and Chateaubelair Fisheries Centres.

Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Saboto Caesar, stated in Parliament on Monday, June 23, that the centres suffered extensive damage due to the April 2021 eruptions of the La Soufriere volcano and the passage of Hurricane Beryl in July 2024.

The Minister said the government is moving ahead with plans to rehabilitate the affected fisheries infrastructure, with funding from the World Bank under the Volcanic Eruption Emergency Project (VEEP). He said the consulting firm Stewart Engineering has been contracted to provide documentation for the rehabilitation of both facilities.

"The firm has submitted their final design report, drawings and technical specifications for the rehab and retrofitting of the facilities. The final documents are currently being currently reviewed by the Economic Planning Division within the Ministry of Finance, and the proposed next step is to get a "no objection" from the World Bank then enter the market for prospective to get bidders to undertake these rehabilitative works. The implementation phase for this initiative is scheduled to commence at the end of 2025 and completed by the end of December 2026 based on the design of the project."

Minister Caesar said work on the Owia Fisheries Centre is expected to resume shortly.

"As it pertains the Owia facility we creatively embarked on a public/private partnership whereby the government worked with entities, organizations for the management of these facilities so the private sector entity met with the Ministry last week AND with the assistance with VINLEC we are going to restart the work and I anticipate that we may stop probably around November/December based on his calculation and if the VEEP stared earlier then he would have to vacate to allow the VEEP."

SOURCE: National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC Radio)