Cyclone resilient homes
THE Ministry of Local Government, Housing and Community Development is working on pre-approved Category 5, two and threebedroom house plans.
This was revealed by Premila Kumar, during the Pacific Impact Webinar Series on ‘Achieving longterm climate change resilience for the Pacific SIDS Post COVID-19” on Wednesday.
“This would allow Fijians to access a range of house plans with approved engineering drawings based on their affordability,” she said.
“We in the Pacific, share very similar experiences in the climate space and we can learn a lot from each other.
“During a natural disaster, most of the donor assistance goes towards immediate recovery and rebuilding key infrastructure such as bridges or schools.”
The direct assistance towards rebuilding homes was understandably minimum according to the minister.
“Areas where the Government can work closely with development partners, is in long term climate adaptation and resilience programs that can reduce financial burden on households that are frequently hit by cyclones.
“In the housing sector, awareness and training programs on building back better and stronger, technical assistance to assess housing structures, and micro finance/insurance are some of the potential areas Fiji has identified for partnerships.”
She said in the Pacific, climate change had been a grave and serious concern.
“With the pandemic, it has become more challenging to achieve climate change resilience, when attention is towards health and safety, food security, economic recovery, and connectivity.
“Implementation of plans and policies for recovery must consider the size of our economies, and the different levels of development in the region.
“It is only then, we can truly realise the gaps and arrive at collective solutions.”
She said climate finance was a key issue and the 2 per cent climate finance, collectively for Pacific Island Countries was unacceptable.
Access to climate finance was crucial for saving and sustaining the island nations.
“Fiji will soon legislate ground breaking Climate Change Bill,” she said.
“This Bill sets out a plan for Fiji to achieve economy –wide net zero carbon emissions by 2050.”