Agreement signed for southside study

It was announced last month and this week Prime Minister Said Musa formally green-lighted a feasibility study as part of the government’s upliftment programme for southside Belize City. During brief signing ceremonies in Belmopan on Tuesday, Musa said that the results of a four-month long probe will hopefully give G.O.B. a better idea of what it will take to improve life for residents of some of the city’s poorest areas.

Prime Minister Said Musa
?The key objectives of this study are summarised as follows. One, to identify the technical and environmental requirements needed to upgrade the areas with severe infrastructure and environmental problems. To establish a process whereby this process can be achieved with the fullest involvement of current residents, as well as N.G.O.?s and government. And to prepare cost estimates of any capital works proposed, to prioritize and propose phasing of the works and to use innovative engineering to achieve value solutions to the technical problems.?

?But in order for the work now to progress we need to have this comprehensive feasibility study done and carried out. And we are very pleased to sign this contract with the Halcrow Group who are not unfamiliar with the situation since they have already been carrying out substantial work in this area of Belize City. The study is expected to take approximately four months at a cost of U.S. ninety-four thousand, seven hundred and fifty dollars.?

According to C.E.O. in the Ministry of National Development, Hugh O’Brien, who chairs a technical working group, many of the initiatives already being carried out by different organisations will likely form part of the overall Southside Poverty Alleviation Programme. Trade Union activist Zenaida Moya, in her capacity as director of the public sector investment programme, has been tasked by G.O.B. to coordinate the programme.