Julius Espat Breaks Down $12M Emergency Repair Budget

Immediately following the thunderstorms, personnel from the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing were dispatched to various parts of the country to evaluate the extent of damages to roads, drains and culverts that were affected by the tropical wave.  During the house meeting today, Minister Espat specified the various locations, as well as the monies earmarked for the respective repair work.

Julius Espat

Julius Espat, Area Representative, Cayo South

“An assessment exercise was conducted after the weather disturbance which was discussed with the Ministry of Finance and presented to cabinet.  Twelve million Belize dollars were made available for damage repairs on our major feeder roads.  Even though this sum could never thoroughly address the vast needs of the impacted area.  In particular, the requested funding for these emergency works will be primarily used for, and I will state the following.  In general of the twelve million dollars requested here in the house, the Belize District has been allocated six point seven million dollars. The Orange Walk District, four million dollars and the Corozal District, one point two-five million dollars, all in Belize dollars.  I humbly ask that the area reps from the other districts don’t get offended, but this request was specifically for the areas that were impacted with the flood that happened on August seventeenth and eighteenth.  But, the ministry will continue to work in all the other districts because we still have the funds that were budgeted originally and we will continue our work as we have always done.  So let’s just work as a team and support the guys in the north that really had these problems.”