Now that panic has subsided slightly on La Soufrière, it’s time we started asking some important questions of the Government, who appear to have lacked any emergency plans.
The first and most obvious question relates to water supply and how the country found itself in a position where water supply needed to be shipped to us is such large quantities. Most of the essential shelters are our schools, yet there were several of them without any water stored in tanks. There was a 4 months preparation time lapse.
Added to this, schools were due to return on April 12 and given that washing hands regularly is an important part of the Government’s COVID strategy, that would surely mean that schools should have had sufficient water supply.
But in reality, we had to rely upon water being shipped from our CARICOM neighbours and many shelters had no water for days. Did NEMO have the resources to properly equip our shelters? Or was this possibly the fault of the Government? The fact that we even have to ask these questions indicates that not only was the Government ill-prepared for a volcanic eruption, they were also not prepared for our schools to return on April 12.
Concerns regarding La Soufrière were initially raised in December of last year, when a new dome began to form. The Government had 4 months to prepare for this possibility and yet hardly any plans seemed to be in place. And given the country has been in the midst of a pandemic for a year, basic supplies should have been part of Government plans regardless of a volcanic eruption. The plain and simple fact is that the Government mishandled this essential part of planning for the eruption and for COVID and now our people have had to suffer, and our students have not attended school for over 12 months.
It’s time the Government was held to account for their poor planning.