Environmentalmanagementissuesrelatedtolow-income.docVIP

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ISSUES RELATED TO LOW-INCOME HOUSING IN SAINT LUCIA Prepared by Peter Norville Consulting Engineer March 2003 1.0 Background Under its Caribbean Disaster Mitigation Project, the Organisation of American States (OAS) has been assisting the National Research and Development Foundation of St. Lucia (NRDF) in undertaking a Hurricane Resistant Home Improvement Programme (HRHIP), which has been operational for nearly 7 years. Through assistance recently received from the World Bank, the OAS has embarked on a short-term project to review the lessons learned from the St. Lucia HRHIP program and to build capacity in the OECS to improve on and replicate the linkage of property insurance with home retrofit programs for low-income homeowners. This project seeks to introduce an environmental management dimension, which hitherto was not part of the programme, and in that regard, the OAS has initiated a consultancy which has as its primary purpose, “to prepare an overview of typical environmental problems associated with locating and constructing lower income housing in St. Lucia, and to identify and formulate appropriate and feasible remedial measures”. This report represents the results of the work undertaken by the consultant engaged to examine the environmental issues relating to low cost housing in St. Lucia. It is outlines the main environmental management issues relating to the establishment and construction of low-cost housing units, and presents guidelines to minimize the negative environmental impacts of decisions and activities related to the establishment and construction of low-cost housing units. These guidelines are presented in a user-friendly format, for use by housing programme managers and homeowners. In preparing this report, the consultant undertook discussions with the Executive Director and some staff members of the NRDF. Also, with the assistance of the staff of the NRDF, site visits were undertaken to several areas in St. Luci