By: LATONYA LINTON
THE FULL STORY
The Government will be undertaking a national clean-up initiative under the Relief Emergency Assistance and Community Help (REACH) Programme.
Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, made the disclosure during a statement to the House of Representatives on Tuesday (July 9).
The REACH Programme aims to provide immediate assistance to Jamaicans affected by Hurricane Beryl.
Major elements of the programme include the distribution of food and essential supplies; water, electricity and telecommunications restoration; housing reconstruction and support; and economic recovery and restoration of livelihoods.
Prime Minister Holness said the clean-up programme will involve the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), National Works Agency (NWA) and Municipal Authorities.
He indicated that its coordination will be shared by the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation and the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development, adding that Members of Parliament will also be central to the initiative.
“So you will be informed as to what your role is in this national clean-up. We want to get it off very quickly [because], by Independence, the country should look clean,” the Prime Minister stated.
“We will also work very closely with the Ministry of Health [and Wellness] because the bulky waste [and] the ponds that have been created, those become breeding spaces for vectors (mosquitoes) that carry various disease. So even though it’s at a national programme, there will still be some targeting in the programme,” Mr. Holness said.
He noted that another area being targeted are corridors where debushing and pruning are needed to protect the electricity infrastructure.
Mr. Holness said the Government will be working with the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), “who has a responsibility themselves; but we will coordinate with them to ensure that the national grid is protected”.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister noted that a number of citizens, some with their own equipment, have started to clean up their surroundings.
“We take responsibility for ourselves and our communities, and we must encourage that. We understand that they can’t do everything. So they may have a machete, they may have a chainsaw, they may have a backhoe, and some may even have trucks that are able to cart away [debris], but most don’t. Even when the public entities do the limbing and cutting up of fallen trees, they still leave them there by the wayside awaiting the public sanitation to take it away,” he stated.
“We must understand that the public sanitation [system] was already under stress, and this, now, would be double stress to move some of this debris for which they are not fully provisioned,” Prime Minister Holness emphasised.