The Editor, Sir:

We have built wonderful highways linking most of the major towns and cities, made tremendous advances in information and other technology, but as a nation, we have for too long ignored a simple need: to provide more and better housing for our citizens.

Each year, at the approach of the hurricane season, citizens are reminded that they should move from areas prone to flooding, including low-lying areas, river and gully banks. It is no secret however, that most people live in these areas out of a sense of necessity and desperation because they have nowhere else to go. At the same time, our biggest landowner, the Govern-ment, has huge tracts of land suitable for housing lying idle all across our island.

The hundreds of squatter settlements that have sprung up across our nation are testament to the fact that we have not been very serious at making a concerted effort to house our citizens. When these settlements emerge, creating a myriad of social and environmental problems, we then belatedly act to put in vital infra-structure. Much too often, action is only taken when the inevitable friction results in confrontation, roadblocks and disruption of normal life.

None of our governments to date have yet found the courage or vision to make housing for the nation's huge army of landless people a priority.

Why it is so difficult to sub-divide suitable government land across the country and offer it for sale to the ordinary people is puzzling, because all of our governments since independence have come to power with promises of making life better for the poor. What better way is there to make a meaningful impact on the lives of these people than to give them the means by which to empower themselves, provide them with the opportunity to live in a safe place, and at the same time, instil a great sense of pride in them?

electrification programme

In the 1970s, the then Government introduced the Rural Electrification Programme which significantly impacted on the lives of rural people. More recently, the NHT introduced starter units as part of its housing solutions, but this is not enough.

What is needed is an initiative driven by the Government which will identify lands suitable for housing in every parish, provide basic infra-structure of roads, water and electricity and sell them to people who do not own land. Until this happens, then we will continue to create more and more squatter settlements, social unrest will continue and our people will continue, to feel that they are regarded as important only at election time.

I am, etc.,

BASIL STEWART

Buff Bay P.O., Portland