By Vernon Daley, Staff Reporter
AS THE island crawls back to normality following the recent floods, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson told Parliament yesterday that more than $1 billion would be released for welfare assistance and repair work in devastated communities.
He said the allocation was based on initial estimates from various Ministries but warned when the final assessment is done, the cost of the damage could take a major leap. He said damage to the agriculture industry was not included in the recovery estimates as assessments were still being done.
"It is not easy to provide expenditures of these orders of magnitude. But as a responsible government we have a duty to respond as best we can when our people are in distress," Mr. Patterson told the House shortly after completing a tour of affected areas in St. Mary and Portland.
Under the short-term emergency plan, $146.9 million will be granted to the Ministry of Water and Housing to provide relief to affected persons in the form of housing, water and cash grants. The Ministry of Health will be given $18.5 million to undertake a public education campaign focusing on water quality, while $284.29 million will be provided to the Local Government Ministry for road repairs in all parishes.
However, the major portion of the funds ($662.9 million) will go to the Ministry of Transport and Works to undertake road repairs and road clearing, reconstruction of bridges, training of rivers and repairing gullies.
The Prime Minister emphasised that given the shortage of vital heavy equipment and need for efficiency in completing the repairs, there would be no distinction between main roads and Parish Council roads.
"I hope nobody will be offended or think I'm trying to usurp local government but people who are marooned need to have their roads," Mr. Patterson said. He added that the road repair work will be co-ordinated by State Minister for Transport and Works, Dean Peart. He will work closely with Water and Housing Minister Karl Blythe who has on-the-ground responsibility for co-ordinating the recovery plans.
The heavy flood rains which were associated with Hurricane Michelle led to the deaths of four people and caused massive damage to bridges, roadways, agricultural lands and lifestock especially in Portland and St. Mary. More than 100 houses were also destroyed.
The hurricane, which lashed the neighbouring island of Cuba, dumped 622 millimetres of rain on Jamaica - the highest amount recorded in the country's history.
Following the massive damage, there were suggestions from some parish councillors that the government should declare some sections of the island disaster areas. This was, however, dismissed by the Prime Minister yesterday.
He pointed out that if the country or sections of it were to be declared a disaster area, this would have to be done under the Emergency Powers Act, providing government with extraordinary powers such as exist in a state of emergency.
"There is nothing in our experience which suggests that we can't do what we need to do without resorting to the Act," Mr. Patterson said. He added that declaring a national disaster could hurt the island's already ailing tourism industry as it would signal that the country was closed for business.
