Dominican opposition accuses government of incompetence after Erika

The opposition United Workers Party (UWP) has accused the government of not being serious when it comes to managing the environment.

In an address to members of the Diaspora on Thursday, UWP legislator Issac Baptiste blamed the Roosevelt Skerrit administration of not being serious when it comes onto the environment.

He said the problems were highlighted with the passage of Tropical Storm Erika in August.

“The problems we are facing here, yes the natural disaster caused it, but to a great extent the incompetence of this government created the problem also largely…,” he said.

He said land use planning issues, infrastructure and housing issues had to be addressed before the storm “and to show that the problems we are facing here did not arise as a result of Tropical Storm Erika it was existing and many of the problems were raised as a result of poor planning, bad decision making, incompetence of this present administration.”

“Therefore even before Erika, two consecutive years we had natural disasters, we had the trough situation that affected badly the Mahaut area, we had another situation that affected the southern area… and now we have Erika,” Baptiste said.

The passage of the storm on August 27 led to death and destruction across the island , prompting Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit to appeal for international aid.

The Prime Minister then stated that damage from the storm could set the country’s development back two decades.