Government
Today, Demolition of Informal Settlements Begin
By Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicos, March 23, 2023 – The Government has begun the process of removing informal settlements with the first demolitions scheduled for today and tomorrow, March 23rd and 24th. The news came on Wednesday via press release following announcements in February that the demolitions were mere weeks away.
Through the Informal Settlement Unit, the owners of the structures which are located in The Bight and in Five Cays District were informed that the knocking down of their illegal buildings would take place. They were also given a time frame to remove themselves from the area.
The notice on Wednesday (March 22), informs that the land in the Bight is privately owned while the land in Five
Throughout the process, the Informal Settlement Unit and the Government have endeavoured, they say, to make the process as humane as possible. Notices of eviction have now expired, and surveys have been carried out to ensure that no one remains in occupation of any of the structures to be demolished.
It is a fulfilment of promises made by Premier Washington Misick last year at the Turks and Caicos’s first Climate Change Summit and is also in line with recommendations from the Crown Land Review, a document which enjoys the endorsement of both the United Kingdom and the TCI Elected Government.
The Crown Land Review has also given clear and accepted guidelines on land ownership and distribution in the Turks and Caicos for the foreseeable future.
The Informal Settlement Unit says a Development Control Engineer will be on-site to monitor the demolition works and utility companies have already cut off electricity and water. They’re also promising that debris will not be left strewn in the community but disposed of properly; taken to a site approved by the Environmental Health Department of the TCIG.
Any construction without its plans approved by the Department will face this same fate. Destruction; humanely, legally and certainly.