The government intends to crack down on shantytowns in The Bahamas, Minister of Housing and Environment Kenred Dorsett announced in the House of Assembly yesterday.
Dorsett said there will be consequences for people who live in such areas if they are not operating within the law.
"A copy of all of the notices that we have served and will serve to the owners and occupiers of shantytowns by the Department of Environmental Health Services will be copied to the Ministry of Works and Urban Development, the Ministry of National Security and the departments of Immigration and Social Services," Dorsett said.
"The Ministry of Works will serve notices it may deem appropriate and shantytown occupiers and owners will be required to provide an occupancy certificate, approved building plan permit from the Ministry of Works, approved Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) connection and approved Water and Sewerage connection.
"If these cannot be produced, the Ministry of Works will also be able to take the necessary action."
The announcement followed a report on shantytowns revealed last month by The Nassau Guardian.
The report titled, "Haitian shanty village locations in New Providence" indicated there are at least 15 Haitian shanty villages on the island.
Researchers found that there is a "marked indifference to the extremely unhealthy conditions by those that occupy the shanties".
"This administration is going to take a proactive approach to addressing this issue because from a public health standpoint, the bottom line is we cannot continue business as usual," Dorsett said. "One outbreak of cholera and our number one industry [would be] gone. So this is not something that we can play with."
Dorsett noted that shanty towns traditionally operate outside the requirements for proper sanitation, without regard to the building code and in violation of safety requirements for electricity.
He said the Department of Environmental Heath established a Special Projects Unit (SPU) to address the issues associated with shanty towns.
"We are shifting more human resources to this unit," Dorsett said. "As we get more empirical data we are astounded by the number of shanty towns that are popping up all over this archipelago."
Dorsett added that many of the shanty towns are on private land.
"What is interesting to me is that the owners of those private parcels of land have sought me out. Two families in particular have told me that they approached administrations with a view to assisting them. Some indicated that they own the land...but they have not been able to get the people off their land."
He said the government will address all of the issues relating to shanty towns.
In addition to reviewing the latest shanty town report, Dorsett said the government is updating previous reports on shanty towns across The Bahamas.
He added that the Bahamian people can expect to get updates from him on the "vexatious problem" in the coming weeks.

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