BRIEFS. health

Mivi houses do not meet needs of families

BORIS GÓMEZ/LA PRENSA

Uninhabitable: Some of the houses built for families with disabled children have been abandoned and vandalized.989202

The Ministry of Housing (Mivi) built 25 houses for families with disabled children but some of those are uninhabitable and have been vandalized."How could it occur to the authorities at the Mivi that a single mother with a disabled child can go and live in a house where there is no bathroom or even a latrine?" asked Osvaldo Gibson, a member of Fuerzas Vivas del Barú (Fuviba)..

"We are talking about children with cerebral palsy or who have difficulty walking, and one would think that the Mivi could have foreseen that these families would have serious health and hygiene problems if they built a neighborhood without taking appropriate sanitary measures," he said. The regional director of Mivi, Ellys Rios, said that the building program in Chiriquí did not include indoor sanitation, but that a panel will reconsider the situation. The governor of Chiriqui, Virgilio Vergara, said that families usually contribute to the construction of a latrine, but as a special case they will be installed with support rails so disabled people can use them.

Gibson has called for an investigation into what he believes are the unfair prices being charged for the houses.