EC$1 million BHS trailers in Beach-Allen graveyard
Basseterre, St. Kitts, March 13, 2018 – Several trailers, purchased in 2015 at a cost of nearly EC$1 million by the Team Unity Government to provide additional classrooms for Basseterre High School (BHS) students, remain unused and in a graveyard at the Beach-Allen Primary School.
In July 2015, Education Minister Hon. Shawn Richards said Public Works Department official, George Gilbert and St. Kitts Teachers Union President and the BHS Guidance Counsellor, Ron Collins had travelled to the United States to purchase the trailers.
Several were imported and on arrival were located first on a piece of open land west of the temporary BHS at Taylors and have since been moved and lay waste and unused on the Beach-Allen Primary School compound.
Remedial works costing some EC$7 million were spent at the original BHS location by the Labour Party administration following the recommendation of local, regional and international organisations.
The reports from the local scientists, Dr. Milton Whittaker and Mr. Clement “Bouncing” Williams; the Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI), also based in Trinidad and the Washington-based National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), recommended that the buildings could be inhabited after remedial works are completed.
But the reports were rejected by the new Timothy Harris-led PLP/CCM/PAM Government and three of the wooden structures were removed from the Eastern Campus for use as classrooms and the Principal’s Office at a cost of EC$400,000 to the temporary site.
The Team Unity Government also spent EC$4 million to build what they called a temporary state-of-the-art wooden structure by INNOTECH, a Barbados company, by-passing local construction companies.
Desk, chairs, tables and air condition units were also removed from the original Eastern and Western BHS campuses and installed at the temporary facility at Taylor’s and at the Verchild’s High School and other schools.
Millions of dollars have been spent on the design of a new Basseterre High School which the Prime Minister Harris and Education Minister Richards will construct on the main aquifer which supplies millions of gallons of water daily to Basseterre and its environs.
Leader of the Opposition, the Right Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas has called on the people of Basseterre and its environs to protect the island’s major source of drinking water.
“The technical people are speaking out and are basically challenging the position that is being adopted by this administration in wanting to locate a new Basseterre High School on the Basseterre Aquifer, which serves the entire Basseterre area with its drinking water supply,” said the former prime minister.
East Basseterre resident, Mr. Glenroy Blanchette said he is troubled by the decision to build a new Basseterre High School (BHS) on the Basseterre Valley Aquifer.
“The risks to life and property are too great. This is the right time for the government to adopt the precautionary principle and do not build on the Aquifer. To do otherwise will create untold hardship for present and future generations. A word to the wise is enough,” warned Blanchette, a lecturer at the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College (CFBC).
Blanchette, a trained geographer and Disaster Management Specialist for 15 years said “to think that this government is going to be so recklessly criminal by putting such a valuable water resource at risk, is really mind-boggling.”
One of the Federation’s renowned architect and planner, Mr. Victor Williams, said construction of the proposed new Basseterre High School (BHS) could cost in the region of EC$80 million.
He said the Richards’ figure of EC$40 million does not include the cost of several amenities including support buildings, fencing, furniture, lab equipment and air conditioning.
After five years – two in opposition and three in government – the start of construction seems far off.
Photo 1 – Trailers in the Beach-Allen graveyard
Photo 2 – Section of wooden structure being moved from the Eastern Campus to the temporary facility
Photo 3 – Temporary BHS facility at Taylors with classes still being held on the outside
Photo 4 – original Basseterre High School (West section of Western Campus)
Photo 5 – original Basseterre High School (East section of Western Campus)
Photo 6 – Dr. Timothy Harris and Mr. Shawn Richards
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