'Jamaica has done extremely well' with Hurricane Melissa response, says PM

 

Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness has strongly rejected claims by the parliamentary opposition and other critics that the government has failed miserably in its response to the destruction caused by Hurricane Melissa in western Jamaica. 

 

Opposition Leader Mark Golding told the People's National Party annual conference on the weekend that nearly a year after the storm devastated the island, residents in communities in western Jamaica are still living in tents without the basic amenities. He also pointed to the government's decision not to pay out more than $1.4 billion in donations it received for the victims of the storm. 

 

Mr. Golding said the government has also failed to provide assistance to struggling businesses and farmers who suffered a significant losses from the hurricane. 

 

But speaking Tuesday at the signing ceremony for the World Bank Grant to the National Reconstruction Implementation Support Project, a grant agreement between Jamaica and the World Bank to support the country's national reconstruction and resilience efforts, Dr. Holness defended the response of his administration. 

 

"Jamaica's hurricane response has improved dramatically and [is] comparable or even better than peers who have had a similar experience. By March, six months or thereabout after, 97 per cent of the electricity grid was restored. So in the conversation about or response to the hurricane there are those who would want to paint a picture of purely doom and gloom and that the government has not done a good job. I stoutly reject that and point to the facts. Yes, there are cases, without question, as there would be in Hurricane Katrina, in hurricanes that have affected Puerto Rico and other countries. Yes, there will be cases and there is still human suffering, but you have to judge the system response on the bigger picture, and on the bigger picture Jamaica has done extremely well," he insisted.

 

Dr. Holness also defended the decision of the government to award more than $1 billion in contracts for the construction of bases for erection of the container homes. 

 

This follows criticism from the opposition about the lack of transparency in the awarding of contracts.

 

"We are targeting to deploy approximately 2,500 units, and there is a criticism that the cost of building the bases are extremely high and I reflected on this. I think the Jamaican people should appreciate that to my government there is an alternative, and that is the beauty of the democracy and they have a choice. I can't tell you what the alternative is. Now, if we're going to build bases for temporary houses, should we just go and put some stumps in the ground and put the temporary houses on it and leave the people in the temporary houses? We could probably do that for about J$500,000 and we just leave them there. But would that have built resilience for the next hurricane?" he questioned.