Is Dr Pickering to take blame for food shortages post hurricanes 2017? - Hon Fahie asks
Following the destruction of Hurricane Irma, residents flooded the supermarkets for nonperishable goods, which left the shelves empty and persons having difficulty getting food, while persons complained about the bad experience they had to go through to get relief supplies.
“Can the Minister for Natural Resource and Labour please inform this Honourable House if the ball was dropped by him as minister pre-hurricane Irma that caused the BVI not to have food post-hurricane Irma?” asked the Opposition Leader during the continuation of the First Sitting of the Third Session of the Third House of Assembly (HoA) on Thursday, March 8, 2018.
The minister responsible for agriculture responded, “If I understood the question correctly, then I would be able to answer. Whatever my responsibilities were as Minister responsible for the subject that I did not carry out then I obviously dropped the ball.”
Not pleased with the indirect answer, Hon Fahie asked the minister if he was saying that it is his fault that the territory was left without food following the hurricanes.
For clarification he asked, “So you are saying that it was your fault as Minister for Agriculture that we did not have food post- hurricane Irma?" while pointing out that the statement was made during the H. Lavity Stoutt commemoration ceremony on March 5, 2018.
Minister for Education and Culture Honourable Myron V. Walwyn (AL) had told the gathering that Agriculture in the Territory is not where it used to be and suggested that the food crisis that was faced in the aftermath of the hurricanes of 2017 would’ve been less if we were growing more of our own food.
Minister Walwyn further added: “HL would’ve actively pursued various ways to get persons to once again recognise the importance of Agriculture and starting their own gardens, and this is something that I dare say that we must all now endeavour to do."
Meanwhile, the Deputy Premier, dodging the question again, said “I will repeat myself, whatever my responsibilities are or were as minister and I did not fulfill those responsibilities, then I obviously dropped the ball.”
Residents complained about not receiving distribution aid
It was reported that aid coming to the Virgin Islands (VI), following the hurricanes of September 2017 that left many without food, had transparency issues to the point where there was an investigation being conducted.
To date, residents expressed that they have not received any relief supplies that were said to be “distributed evenly,” according to the Department of Disaster Management (DDM) Director, Sharleen S. DaBreo, speaking to media houses last year during a food supply presentation from One Mart.
One lady during the course of this week expressed that she did not receive any food supplies from the relief items that were brought in, while expressing that she was lucky to get one case of water and that was it.
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21 Responses to “Is Dr Pickering to take blame for food shortages post hurricanes 2017? - Hon Fahie asks”
In terms of the disputation post Irma it won’t be fair to directly bleam him. As a over seeer you should hold full responsible, but behind back people will do as they please. The issue was the selfish individual/s who was profiling people if they was from here or not, if they purple or blue etc. A lot of things went wrong (ONLY) so when if we hit agin we should be it right this time around. But not all as fair as most few of us.
Government should make arrangements to feed first responders and other essential employees who have to work before, during and after a hurricane or other disasters. As part of disaster preparedness planning, residents should be encouraged to procure and store 3-5 days of non perishable food items (including water). In regards to feeding the nation after a disaster, the responsibility should be assigned to a specific department(s). More than one responsible department is normally not effective and does not operate smoothly.
The department should be staffed and funded to meet the mission requirements. To make this happened, support teams should be identified and assigned to the dept. Additionally, structurally sound facilities should be identified to store supplies and equipment and to housed staff during a disaster. The food supplies should procured and stored well ahead of a disaster occurring. Suggest procuring meal ready to eat (MRE) food items. These items typically have a shell life of 3-5 years.
Further, small indefinite delivery indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts to supply food after a disaster can be issued to either internal or external contractors. Further, the tasked agency should also be responsible for accepting, storing, inventorying, accounting for, and distributing donated items to needy residents.
I have no dog in this fight. Nonetheless, unless local agricultural products were harvested and stored in a structurally sound facility, the strong Cat 5 storms would have probably damaged agricultural products and agricultural production facilities. As insurance, government could have partnered with local supermarkets to arranged to prepositioned critical food supplies safely outside of the storm area to be delivered immediately after the storm passed. The prepostioning should be the standard not only for food but also for other supplies, ie, equipment, medical supplies, construction material.......etc.
What we need is better MOUs with the food importer to keep several more weeks store during the hurricane season and MOUs with the shippers to bring it in after a disaster. Problem is IrmaMaria was a catastrophe on an unprecedented scale which impacted supply changes all the way to Florida. This is something for DDM and Premiere's Office to work on not Agric and Pico.
Ministry of Health is the line Ministry in charge of food and aide receipt and distribution in disasters.
To answer the question posed in the headline...No!
On a more serious note we need a plan before next hurricane season its right upon us. Each of us need a plan a and a plan b. This is the time to do it.
NFL full a sh**.... cause majority of time... well poor ppl ain't get nothing n still struggling
This is a vast misrepresentation of reality and truth in order to gain political points