The heavy rainfall and flooding on Christmas Eve has forced designers of the Roseau River Promenade, the proposed enhancement of the river bank, back to the drawing board. Speaking to reporters on Monday morning, Minister for Tourism and Legal Affairs, Ian Douglas, said the design is currently being worked on by the Ministry of Public Works.
“The consultants have given us their impressions, and that has to go back to the Ministry of Public Works so that they could sign off on it. But what we have found is because of the heavy rains during the Christmas season we may have to revise and review the drawings.” Douglas stated that some of the walls may have to be higher and the existing wall on the northern side of the Roseau River may have to be looked at again by the engineers.
“We are looking at that right now to put it back on the table, to verify and receive confirmation from the engineers whether the present designs that we have are adequate for going forward with the promenade. Of course, the northern wall has to be done even before we start” he added. He noted that the project will officially begin as soon as all details are finalized.
The Roseau River Promenade is part of the government’s redevelopment plan for improving and beautifying Roseau. It is being funded by the government of Dominica and ALBA. Vending booths for food and beverage, landscaping and tree planting, a cantilevered board walk, with an upscale restaurant and mini-mall, and a retaining wall are all expected to be part of the project.
Mr Blackmore is this poor planning or incompetence at it best. Why was a bridge built in the vicinity of the new market, the same which caused flooding of properties in that locality when a comprehensive report prepared by international transportation planners, civil engineers, environmentalists and physical planners, after proper origin and destination surveys concluded that a second lane alongside the then existing west bride and making Great George street two way out of central Roseau from King George street to the said bridge was more than adequate to solve vehicular traffic concerns in that part of the city. Did not your government realise that the road works ongoing/completed in the Roseau valley would have resulted in increase and fast storm water flows impacting downstream of water courses originating in these areas? Was this not exactly what happened very recently in your constituency as a result of the Cannefieldd/Pont Casse roaad? Could it be that you guys are afraid of losing votes because the squatters along the river must be moved in order to implement the river promenade? Is not the new china friendship bridge an obstruction to construction of the promenade as envisaged in the Roseau dev. plan and concept designs presented by the Dominica Society of Architects?
Sir I could raise many other issue surrounding your govt. incompetence, deception and poor decision making with respect to this project. So Mr Douglas please wheel and come again, stop blaming every one but your government as usual for failing to do the right thing. Stop your politically expedient decisions and take action that are really in the longterm national interest.
One of the best comments i ever read on DNO. Admin I nominate that for comment of the month. We should start a comment of the month of DNO.
Hope the designers come up with a more realistic design this time… which enhances the natural environment rather than encroaches on and dominates the river. The most transparent process is open tendering for the design….but that will not happen as usual!!!!
I agree with “Transparent Dominica”. To those of us who don’t give much of a damn about political party, the decision to revisit the drawings make perfect sense.
I am over forty, born and raised and lived in Dominica all of my life. What happened on Christmas eve was not “a little rain”. Tell me – when, in your memory, has it rained so much that a river was running down Eggleston and Citronier road or the Roseau river topped the river bank? And this was just a trough system!!! Remember the rains we got a few years ago when the little rivers in Massacre, Canefield, Mahaut and St. Joseph flooded these areas?
What we are witnessing is a change in our climate and a change in the quantity of rain. Every plan for new infrastructure and even for repairing infrastructure has to be re-assessed by engineers in order to be prepared for the new weather conditions.
Sometimes, my people, leave the politics aside and think objectively.
This is a succinct and cogent response to the issue!
I am glad that there are some Dominicans who are willing to think outside the “Political Box” and are willing to exercise objectivity when these issues arise!
Many thanks
I wonder how long will we Dominicans allow this dishonest administration to take us for fools.To tell me that government never knew that Roseau river floods when it rains heavily? sometime last year they told us they were taking measurements.
well just in case the government doesn’t know let me inform them that we also have HURRICANES in Dominica.Because the next story will be that ‘we have to go back to the drawing board to re design the structures to withstand hurricanes’
It’s time to call the U.S.Corp of engineers
Ian ne sait pas de quoi il parle. Pauvre homme
Why do you say that?
Wat a convenient excuse… d minister need to tell us before the 24th of december y the project wass not started…
Where money goes. My dear people, we need to understand how projects are delivered in DA. When you hear of X amount given by this government and so fourth, here’s how it’s done. Imagine It takes 20 million to build a road. EU gives us 20 million. Now the EU will send out consultants and engineers, auditors, experts and so fourth. These people want to return home perhaps every month. Their stay, travel, sustenance and general well-being, is deducted from this 20 million. Now there is perhaps 10 million left. At this point no fiddling or back handedness has occurred. Just the reality we face of being a small nation with a virtual non existent economy. Point is to much blame about corruption without any smoking guns or shred of evidence.
What a bog of coshonir.
You are right, if there are no experienced people in Dominica capable of properly designing a road, no road should be built.
The Engineers and Landscape Architects need to look at what is happening upstream, particularly land reclamation within the river channel which has allowed for the construction Of “Ball of Joy” and the expansion of the squatter residences east of the E C Loblack Bridge.
I wish the Government would also take this recent rainfalls as an opportunity to go over the EIA/EIS and development plan for the Geothermal Project. In my mind it would be fool hardy to not re-evaluate the potential impact of flooding on the development – not only for environmental issues but for power generation as well
Let me firstly clarify my position; I am not yet affiliated to any political party, however I am affiliated to our beautiful island of Dominica!
I think it is absurd that the Minister is criticised for ensuring that the project is aesthetically pleasing but also robust to withstand the adverse weather conditions such as was experienced in Decembet.
Sometimes we need to defer to sensible advice of others, so I applaud the minister’s decision to review the design as this will allow appropriate modifications to be incorporated..
Stop whingeing. Try to be more optimistic although this might be an alien concept to some of you.
Be patient, after all it is a virtue!
Love it. Love the intro and the idea of looking beyond politics. Unfortunately, it’s Dominica, such a possibility is unrealistic.
Shut up….the miinister just found out that the river overflows……what else is he not aware of concernin the occurence of natural disasters in the country???….does he know about hurricanes?
Your language exposes you as a bully.
You do not tell people to shut up when you disagree with their points of view,
There are acceptable ways of influencing others to your views; you obviously have not yet mastered that vital skill.
Doctor Valda Henry, please arrange a master class in “How To Inflluence People” , and please ensure that Thiny attends.
Thanks
The Roseau River Front has been an area marked as a “special development area” for almost 2 years. The government knows this area must be enhanced, however politics is the problem as usual. The issue of displacement to the business people (shacks along the river bank) in that area must be considered. Plans must be sustainable. So this idea isn’t new. It has been planned for some time. Regardless off whoever’s party is “in power” there is a lot to consider when taking on this project and should not be done overnight.
Obviously you are not familiar with the series of lies made by Ian regarding this project. If you go back to all the articles on this project you will understand why people are reluctant to believe what they are now saying.
That’s your opinion. Others don’t see it your way.
For you information sir/madam the project was push back before the heavy rain in december. The engineers close in on the river too much so they had to go back to the drawing board before december 24th so let the minister donot fool us please
Thank you
What the minister must tell us about the so-called three big projects which were ongoing. What happened to the Morocco Hotel, the Coffee Plant and the Abattoir? The truth is work has ceased on ALL these projects. Money done.
So up to thursday concrete was being poured at fhe coffee plant,do you want to see these projects stopped,are you anti development for our beautiful countryDominica?
Don’t forget the road from Pont Case to Hatton Garden. Rayburn Blackmoore was jumping up and down last year and threatening the contractor with all sorts of things if that road not finished by Dec. 2012. Now more than one year later the road still not finish and the minister moomoo on that. At least give us an update!Maybe he has no one to blame again.
I applaud any initiative made by the government to improve the lively hood of my fellow citizens. I am happy to say that whatever works they have done, i, on the behalf of my friends and family and plenty citizens would like to thank them 10-fold for their services. I would however like to state that i would recommend that the way they go about doing certain things are not praise-worthy. It is obvious we will still benefit because deals that were delt have been working however, we need to be careful how our government conduct their business deals. at the end of the day, we may not see the benefit in having them do things the right way but later down in life we will see the implications of such underhanded behaviour. I hear people bash the PM on countless occassion, i have also heard that the opposition is no good. But how can we lash out at the one who is now in power and still predict that another cannot do well. I say let God be the deciding factor in this. All man has their karma to face, whatever they do. All in all, i wish my country a steady recovery from the situation that it is currently in. I know we have the potential to be a prosperous nation, we are a prosperous nation however, if the head is sick, the body will be sick also. So if corruption is at the top, do not expect nothing less from the those at the bottom. We need to pray and we need to learn to work together. Not just make our pockets bigger and bigger. The same men you leave hungry may come rob you for what you have, so share the wealth. Greed never profit no man. Have a good day.
very good.
The tender process for the wall was cancelled in Sept 2012 without any reasons being given to the many contractors who tendered. Today we are told that they are going back to the drawing board for a reason precipitated by an occurrence some three (3) months after the tenders were cancelled! That “the walls may have to be higher” gives the impression that that in itself would prevent flooding to all the adjacent properties. This clearly lacks proper engineering understanding of the situation.
What dictates flooding of the Roseau Market, all of Hanover Street, St Johnson Avenue, including Raffouls, is the height of the Chinese-built bridge. Walls built higher than it will do little to protect the properties mentioned unless there are some kind of flood gates that shut down the bridge.
Notwithstanding, there is a need for an honest engineering commentary and discussion on our recent disasters, including infrastructure and waterway maintenance, data collection, and availability of data for comprehensive engineering analysis.
So true. That stupid chinese bridge is a big flooding factor. its so low
still they say they love d PM
@love their Pm demolish the bridge when UWP wins
Higher walls could even help trap more water just like the high Chinese road/bridge did…..solution must be more than just higher walls
Mr Leblanc I concur – the problem is now the low bridge built by the Chinese. But what is very obvious is that Ian has no idea what is happening. He is either clueless about the procurement process or he just being used as an instrument of deception.
I have seen greater rainfall intensity in Dominica and had not seen that level of flooding. Clearly there is serious need for renewed focus on our storm control system. Notwithstanding the neglect for the fundamental flood measures, the increased runoffs must be accounted for.
Was the bid cancelled in September 2013 or September 2012?
Sept 2013.
Intelligent contribution Mr. Leblanc. 100% support to your view. At the time the Chinese bridge was being built, many Dominican commented that it was much too low. However arrogance by the ruling party as well as foolhardy ‘loyalty’ by its supporters resulted in it going on as planned.
Now this bridge remains an Achilles heel for any flood mitigation procedure. Sadly that’s the only way many Dominicans like it, first allow things to go wrong then suffer the consequences as they conjure futile approaches to rectify their ill fated decision.
Mr. Le Blanc, I am not an Engineer, niether is Mr. Douglas, i observe many engineers replied to your post in the affirmative of the bridge built by the Chinese.
You never said whether it was too low or too high, you only spoke of the other side of the bridge, namely St Johnson Avenue etc being flooded, but i am yet to grab what that side you mention has to do with the proposed Promenade which is on the side facing Save-alot.
Can you or a real Civil Engineer shed some light before those know-it-all start giving the impression that Roosevelt Skerrit was the chief engineer on the chinese-built bridge… and that Chinese Engineers who worked on that bridge have no knowledge of engineering!!!!
I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to the CHINESE GOVERNMENT AND ITS PEOPLE FOR THIS GREAT GIFT.
We are the only OECS island with 4 bridges over the same river, reminds me of the THAMES River in London!!!!!!
THANK YOU. Someone gets it.
Why wont this group of incompetent liars pack up and go? How can Ian lie so blatantly in the face of Dominica and the world?
Every child knows that the Roseau River breaches its bank, if the rains of Christmas had to serve as a reminder to the designers that the project had to be designed to resist these little shower, well heaven help us, what will they design for a real hurricane?
Fire the designers immediately or let them come out to defend their credibility. Which professional can sit back and allow their reputation to be scandalized in that manner, if the designers cannot defend themselves, Ian should demand a refund of all payments made.
This is a joke, you pay consultants to design and after the first rains, before the thing is even started, the design is obsolete and public servants have to redesign.
Why didn’t the public servants design in the first place.
Oh Dominica, my true confession for what I didn’t do …….
what did he lie about?
Ian, your boss fiddling while Rome burns. You remember Cabritts hotel in Portsmouth. I remember very well work started on 28 Sept. 2011 and that little hotel would be ready in 18 months you all said. Well next week will be 28 months and the place still not complete but has the money finished?
That project was scheduled to begin in April of 2013 or early May of 2013, now that something took place in December of 2013 the officials are using that as the reason of the delay. Do we Dominicans look so stupid to these guys? Can we let them know that most of us are knowledgeable? can they for once just tell us the real story.
DNO I am 100% for this project and I applaud the government for taking the imitative however I dislike the dishonesty coming from the government. If there is no money which I suspect is the case then say so. You read Ian’s account and clearly he doesn’t even know what is going on. I would be most surprised if the engineers started of the design of the walls and not consider a worse case storm event . But assuming that Ian is telling the truth the redesign of the walls for a more intense rain event should not delay the project- why not start mobilizing while the walls are being redesigned. This is the 21 century with Computer Aided Designs.
But check out what Ian told us in November – ”
“We are moving along very slowly,”
According to Douglas, the Ministry of Public Works is presently doing some preliminary work such as “measurements and a few boundaries, verifications and stuff.”
“And there is a river wall to the north that they are looking at because they have to look at both sides of the river if we have to start the promenade,” he said. “The ministry of public works is looking at all these issues before we actually start.”
In early March 2013 , Senior Manager in the Ministry of Tourism Danny Reid said the project would begin “at the end of April 2013 to the beginning of May” and construction would last about two years
You see the blatant lies.
The delay in construction and the flooding of the Roseau river have been a blessing in disguise really. It is clear now that the area around St. John Ave., Steber Street and lower end of Potter St. and Elliot Ave are prone to flooding, particularly, the gas station, 7/11 and Raffouls. I doubt a simple river wall would stop that from happening again and the ideal solution must be to relocate the existing buildings and raise the ground level.That is going to be expensive but I don’t know if the property owners will be able to insure their buildings, or sell them if this is not done. I hope they find a good solution because that would help to make Roseau really attractive.
According to the Ministry of Public Works, bidding for the promenade was supposed to have taken place in March of 2013 and subsequently the construction would commence in April or May. Now we are being told because of a little rain and flooding everything is put on hold. Every one even ex Mayor Cecil knows the River floods. Remember, some years ago Cecil was concerned about the flooding of the Roseau River and as result he wanted the vagrants removed from under the bridge, today the experts does not know how seriously the river floods. The Chinese know, a few years ago they built a bridge just in the same proposed area.
The Honorable Mr. Douglas needs to go back to what he does best…which is…what is that again? Mr. making alot of noise these days withouth saying anything useful. Must be elections coming.
The phrase “INCOMPETENCE” springs to mind. As if it has been raining over the christmas period the first time in history.