Minister of Science, Energy, Telecommunications, and Transport Daryl Vaz says some 21,000 Jamaicans are still without electricity weeks after the passage of Hurricane Beryl.

Vaz who shared the latest figure provided by the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) at a post-cabinet press briefing on Wednesday (July 31), said the allocation of workers in the field remains a critical challenge for the utility provider.

“The resource allocation that I have been making a lot of noise about remains the same. As a result of my meeting last week Friday, there were 11055 people between employees of the JPS and contractors, and that number remains the same today. My advice either has not been headed or they are unable to get anymore contractors externally or within Jamaica, which I find very hard to believe,” Vaz said.

In recent weeks, JPS announced that it was finalizing details of the hurricane recovery support it is set to receive from regional energy companies. It noted that utility companies in Belize, the Cayman Islands, Guyana, and Bermuda have confirmed their support.

The Energy Minister informed Cabinet that the company has also engaged the USAID and Manitoba Hydroelectric of Canada, who he said have responded positively and are set to provide JPS with their final deployment schedule.

The JPS has a total customer base of 650,000 customers. The company is projecting that full restoration will be restored to the hardest hit communities.

However, Vaz says there will be a challenge for the company to meet its stipulated deadline without additional resources.

“I am again calling on the JPS based on the information that I have which is real time, real information coming out of the constituencies across Jamaica that there is still a lot of work to be done and a short time to do it,” Vaz said.

Additionally, he shared that there are still 45 National Water Commission pumps that are still without electricity. While, five National Irrigation Commission wells are without electricity.

He said this lack of electricity poses a threat to the livelihood of farmers.

“There are six police stations still without electricity, Malvern, New Market, Cross Keys, Asia in Cave Valley and Warsop. Not to mention that there are 14 Digicel cell towers that are not energized and there are 477 of 658 Flow, so there is almost 400 Flow cell sites that are still not energized,” the Minister.

I called on the JPS to prioritize restoration of electricity to critical service locations.

Some 45 per cent of schools are also still without electricity.