Still no assistance to Dangriga for damage caused by Tropical Depression in June
As Swaso mentioned, there is precedent to the serious flooding of that southern district. In fact, News Five was in that area in June, when Tropical Depression number two resulted in massive flooding not only within the town, but also in the outlying communities of Hope Creek and Sarawee. At the time the damage resulting from the flooding was obvious. NEMO Chairman Gilbert Swaso told us back then that a damage assessment report would be submitted to NEMO headquarters. At that point, some assistance should have been forthcoming. But it wasn’t, and hasn’t been. In fact, Swaso told us today that he was told that there would be no assistance given to Dangriga.
Gilbert Swaso, Mayor, Dangriga Town
Gilbert Swaso
“After the damage assessment that was conducted after Tropical Depression number two, neither the National Emergency Management Organization nor central government has disbursed any aid to the residents or any support to the residents or the Town Council as a result of those damages that were assessed after Tropical Depression number two. You may also recall that the infrastructure which includes the streets was severely affected and those were the ones that certainly have the highest level of damage, the infrastructure. And the government not responding or supporting the Dangriga Town Council is certainly cause for concern and we believe that we need the support to be able to build and rehabilitate those infrastructure that was damaged then and certainly now. We submitted the damage assessment to NEMO through the local NEMO headquarters here in Dangriga. You may also be aware that I am also the Chairperson for the local NEMO so we have been doing follow-up. As a matter of fact I called the NEC, the National Emergency Coordinator, who mentioned that no support will be coming to Dangriga or Sarawee or Hope Creek, but that some support may be going to Punta Gorda. So they are not looking at any support to Dangriga, Sarawee or Hope Creek after Tropical Depression number two. So that is reason for concern because we were impacted…Dangriga, Sarawee and Hope Creek were severely impacted. As you may recall, there was a minimum damage of over three hundred thousand dollars to all those areas, and Dangriga proper suffered most of those damages, and we are not getting any support from NEMO or from the Government of Belize.”
Late this evening, Swaso confirmed that the flooding in Dangriga has already receded.
