After President Gustavo Petro pointed out that a cost of 600 million pesos per dwelling, “is the result of the chain of a series of errors whose fundamental root is not having made the community of Providencia the central protagonist of the reconstruction”, this Monday, the Construction Consortium came out to express its position.
The first thing they highlighted is that the houses had to be made with a great strength in their structure, precisely so that they are resistant to climatic phenomena such as the one that happened and devastated everything on the island.
The Construction Consortium, not without first expressing that it considers legitimate the new government’s concerns about the average cost of houses built on the islands of Providencia and Santa Catalina, showed the reasons why so much money was required for each housing unit: 600 million pesos, as expressed on Sunday by the Colombian president.
Heavy and abundant material
Very big. One of the first accounts delivered by the consortium is that there are 330 homes, of which 208 have 111 square meters, and another 122 have 87 square meters, that is, comparatively (to show the size of the houses) They are houses that, due to their size, are similar to those built in urban cities such as Bogotá, in stratum 5 or 6.
Of steel. In the structure of the houses, according to what was explained by the consortium, they have bolted galvanized steel to prevent corrosion.
In addition, they are built with concrete walls, launched with microfibers and macrofibers, because it cannot be forgotten that they are designed to withstand winds of up to 250 kilometers per hour.
Long life. Additionally, each home has a useful life of close to 50 years.
The key, in the design and construction, was that shelter-type housing be guaranteed, precisely to safeguard the lives of the inhabitants of Providencia against future natural phenomena.
with solar panels. In the explanatory compendium of the Providencia Consortium it is also stated that the houses built are bioclimatic, that is, they have solar panels and rainwater harvesting systems for use, something that fits with the futuristic proposals, to stamp a seal of sustainability on the construction, which has costs that are part of the figure that has seemed surprising.
Heavyweight. One of the impressive figures, within those delivered by the Consortium, is that each house weighs 75 tons and to transport the materials of a house of this nature, to the island of Providencia, it is necessary to have 8 containers, each one of 10 tons. .
In fact, this condition is one of those that puts more weight on the high costs that had to be incurred to build the houses for the victims.
How are they transported?
Putting a home in a city is very different from putting it on an island like Providencia. It’s not about going to the hardware store and buying the screws, or stopping by the sawmill and loading the lumber.
In this case, according to the Consortium’s arguments, “All materials must be transported by land to the Port of Cartagena, from where they leave by sea and travel another 800 kilometers to disembark at a single dock. that Providencia has in operation, since the second was completely destroyed by the hurricane.”
And not to mention the delays
Time is money, say the most famous phrases of those who give advice on how to make resources efficient. For this reason, it is necessary to highlight another of the reasons that the Providencia Consortium argues, regarding the cost of the houses on the island, which were put in the eye of the hurricane, as the object of alleged cost overruns.
According to the builder, in addition to the logistical complexities to bring the material to Providencia, it is also key to discuss the fact of the delays in unloading the material, taking into account that at the time the reconstruction was taking place, the priority it was the entry of food, something that, of course, is natural in events like these, in which people’s lives and food safety take precedence.
Circumstantial facts
Like little, two conjunctural events that came together at the critical moments that the population of Providencia and Santa Catalina experienced due to the climatic phenomenon: the effects of the covid-19 pandemic and the national strike, that blocked the supply chain from Buenaventura for almost three months and also impacted costs.
As soon as the world was coming out of confinement and reactivating the economy, there was a global shortage of steel, there were no containers to transport materials by sea (container crisis), to which is added the lack of labor qualified, according to the spokespersons of the Consortium.
It is not a social housing
It must be remembered that the Providencia Consortium is made up of Amarilo, Marval and Constructora Bolívar, who came together to point out, in the pronouncement, that “All the situations mentioned have affected the final value for each home, which so far is $640 million per unit, being clear that the design, area and finishes do not correspond to that of a social interest home.”