China-Funded Carib Housing Project Moves Forward in Dominica

Above: the Carib territory in Dominica (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Dominica is moving forward with a housing project in the Carib Territory, the government announced.

The project has completed 10 of 40 planned homes in the Kalinago territory.

“We’ve started on the Chinese funded project where the Chinese had offered us some forty houses —we have completed the first ten and I believe those have been allocated,” said Housing Minister Reginald Austrie in a release. “We don’t wait until we complete all the houses before we allocate. Once the houses are complete we allocate the houses. I believe towards the end of February the second ten should be ready for allocation.”

The project, coming at a cost of $1.4 million, is part of a larger housing programme by the government in the Carib Territory.

“We believe that the Carib people should be singled out for special treatment and that is why the Government is doing all in its power to ensure that the Carib people are treated as a special people in Dominica; not only in terms of health but in terms of housing” he said.

The Carib Territory covers 3,700 acres in Dominica’s northeast, with a population of about 3,000.

“As usual, we are involving the Carib Council. We are involving the Parliamentary Representative. We are involving the Department of Carib Affairs,” he said. “So any decision that is taken as far as development in the Carib Territory is concerned, particularly in housing, we have unanimous support and approval from the Carib people because we ensure that we are involving all the entities, all the stake holders in the Carib Territory.”