EU Ambassador and EU Member State officials visit EU funded projects in St. Lucia

A Group comprising the Head of the European Commission Delegation to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Ambassador Valeriano Diaz; the British High Commissioner to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, His Excellency Paul Brummel and the French Ambassador to the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, Ambassador Michel Prom toured a number of European Union funded projects in St. Lucia on Friday 23 July.

The projects viewed included the New National Hospital, the Anse-La-Raye Water Supply Improvement Project, the Human Resource Development Centre at Grande Riviere and the Banana distribution centre at Odsun.

Construction work on the 38 million euro New National Hospital, began in March 2009 following the official turning of the sod on 9 March by Prime Minister Stephenson King and Ambassador Diaz.

When completed the two-storey New National Hospital at Coubaril will be a 122 bed facility that will be the most modern public health care facility in the Caribbean. It will include an accident and emergency department, acute general wards, state of the art operating theatres, an intensive care unit and radiography facilities. The financing assistance for the new hospital is one of the largest grant allocations in the Caribbean by the European Union for a single project. On completion it will be the main health care facility in the island, replacing the 127 year old Victoria Hospital which has been unable to meet the country’s growing health care demands.

The Anse-La-Raye Water Supply Improvement Project, which commenced in late 2009, is aimed at enhancing the quality of life in the community and surrounding areas such as Massacre and Au Tabor by improving the supply of potable water. It consists of a 400,000 gallon per day water treatment plant; a 200,000 gallon water storage tank; a reconstructed intake structure; and installation of a treated water distribution pipeline and chemical feeders for raw water treatment. The EC$6 million dollar project was funded under the EU's Special Framework of Assistance, a banana support package aimed at helping ACP banana producing countries diversify their economies and also alleviate poverty.

The Human Resource Development Centre at Riviere is the largest such facility in the island and is expected to provide the surrounding communities with social and technical services. Whilst he Odsun banana distribution centre facilitates the reception, storage and packaging of fresh bananas prior to export to the United Kingdom and contributes to the reduction in transportation costs and to shorten average time between harvesting and cooling of bananas. These two projects were also funded under the SFA programme.