Copyright jis
Funds have been allocated to Members of Parliament (MP) for the trucking of water to communities now without the commodity due to the impact of Hurricane Melissa. Speaking in the House of Representatives on Tuesday (Nov. 4), Prime Minister, Dr. the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, informed that constituencies in the most severely impacted parishes of Westmoreland, Hanover, St. James, St. Elizabeth, Manchester and Trelawny, will receive $2 million each. Selected constituencies in the parishes of St. Catherine, St. Andrew, Clarendon and St. Ann, will each receive $1.5 million. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister said that the Government has, for the first time, executed a rapid high resolution national housing damage assessment by leveraging the national geospatial intelligence capacity. This effort, coordinated through the National Spatial Data Management Branch and supported by international technology partners analysed more than 428,000 buildings across Jamaica. “Satellite data and drone verification indicate that approximately 116,000 structures sustained severe or catastrophic damage concentrated in Westmoreland, St. Elizabeth and Manchester,” Dr. Holness said. The findings, the Prime Minister told the House, are now guiding targeted relief and reconstruction planning across communities. The category five hurricane has caused extensive damage to the nation’s housing stock particularly in western parishes.
