Pinewood Member of Parliament Khaalis Rolle on Friday responded to critics who have been blasting the government and its agencies over the response in the immediate aftermath of last week’s severe thunderstorm that left parts of New Providence submerged in water.

Mr. Rolle’s constituency was one of the areas most affected by that storm system.

On Friday, he and several teams from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) and Social Services carried out a follow-up assessment in Pinewood Gardens.

Since last Tuesday’s storm, the government has come under heavy criticism for its handling of the situation with many claiming it “dragged its feet.”

But Mr. Rolle dismissed those attacks and said the focus needs to be on Bahamians coming together and not politics.

“It never amazes me, I tell people I’m not in this for politics. I’m in this because I want to help The Bahamas – plain and simple,” Mr. Rolle said.

“I let the people who are politically motivated be political about a response. This is a national tragedy – this is God sending the rain down on us. No one man made this – this is not PLP problem or a FNM problem.

“It pains me that people don’t care enough about this country to focus on the solution as opposed to the politics of it. We need to get to a different level of maturity in this country. That’s why The Bahamas is what it is – it is it’s in the state that we’re in. We are too politically motivated. We need to get the real darn solutions that’s needed for the people of The Bahamas. That’s why they make us leaders in this country.”

He acknowledged that significant progress has been made in the area, but he conceded that there is still a lot of work to be done.

“We’re still going through the assessment period but obviously with the type of water we experienced over the past couple days it’s been extremely difficult,” he said. “There’s been a lot of water damage to furniture and to homes. We’re still going through to specifically identify what the issues are in all of the homes and then we will develop the strategy.”

He says long-term serious consideration has to be given to correcting the problem which keeps pinewood gardens residents finding themselves victims of floods.

He says a recent assessment performed by the Army Corps of Engineers reveals that the area will need to undergo some major infrastructural work that he estimates could cost between $40 million to $50 million.

However, Mr. Rolle seemed doubtful that any government would be prepared to spend that sum of money.