When Tropical Storm Erika hit the Commonwealth of Dominica in 2015, the residents of Petite Savanne withstood the worst of what was to become one of the island’s most infamous natural disasters. Many were displaced, and businesses were closed.
The Dominica Citizenship by Investment Programme, a more than twenty-year-old programme allowing foreign nationals to become citizens of the Commonwealth in return for a significant investment, was crucial to the assistance efforts that followed, and over EC$100 million were set aside to build a better, 340-unit development in Bellevue Chopin to rehouse those who could no longer live in Petite Savanne.
201 residential units will be completed by January 2018
Now, as July 2017 approaches, the development managers have fixed a date for the completion of 201 residential units: 1 January 2018.
Each unit is built to withstand natural disasters, and the development will respond to the needs of a modern, entrepreneurial community. It will, for example, display fibre optics and underground utility lines. It will also showcase playing fields and a basketball court, as well as new roads, and commercial and resource centres.
The development has provided employment for 150 Dominicans, both involved in the construction of the units and of the surrounding infrastructure. It is also expected to boost the activities of Bellevue Chopin, injecting it with greater demand for goods and services by its new residents.
“I look forward to handing the keys over to the first set of residents; I am very pleased with government’s response to the Petite Savanne people,” said Member of Parliament for Petite Savanne, Mr Kenneth Darroux.