(Jamaica Observer) – AHEAD of next week’s reopening of schools, an additional $500 million has been allocated to ease Jamaicans’ torment caused by drought and severe heat brought on by Super El Niño weather conditions. Cabinet approved the measure Monday and Minister of Water, Environment and Climate Change Matthew Samuda provided an update to the media yesterday.
“We’ll see $150 million being sent to the National Water Commission (NWC) for them to dedicate trucks to schools, [for] back-to-school; to health centres and hospitals; and indeed to critical infrastructure, including police stations, with a priority on those that are places of detention. From the approved $500 million we will see $200 million being channelled through the offices of the Members of Parliament to provide support in their constituencies, and it will see $150 million of support going to all municipalities to ensure that they’re able to respond in areas where the utility footprint is not,” Samuda announced.
He was speaking during a tour of a multi-billion-dollar pipe-laying and rehabilitation project on Old Hope Road in St Andrew.
The minister stressed that if weather conditions improve, the funds will not be spent. However, he acknowledged that meteorological forecasts indicate that the situation is not likely to improve any time soon.
Brutal heat, reduced rainfall, and drought are some of the conditions that accompany what is on track to be the strongest El Niño on record. The weather pattern has been unleashing extreme weather across the globe, and Jamaicans have been reeling from the impact.
