Robert Nesta Morgan, the Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, with responsibility for works, has announced that Cabinet has approved a $2 billion emergency fund to facilitate patching work on the country’s main road networks.

Morgan, speaking at a post-Cabinet press briefing on Wednesday, 11 December, said he expects contracts to be issued to contractors later this week.

“The people of Jamaica have been clamouring for relief from the potholes; as a listening government, we have heard the clamour and we have felt the potholes ourselves. Initially, we allocated $3 million to the National Works Agency (NWA) and assigned some to constituencies. We have had a period of unprecedented rainfall, which has not only caused our roads to become damaged, but also prevented us from carrying out the necessary repairs we had scheduled. The issue is not about finding resources to repair a large portion of the roads that have challenges; the issue was that when we did try to repair some of these roads, the rain stopped us. We should not try to patch roads in the rain; we will lose our asphalt, and the people of Jamaica will complain that we are not being efficient in spending their resources,” Morgan said.

Morgan stated that work will commence on the country’s main thoroughfares, given that the rain has taken a break in some parishes.

The $2 billion allocation is in addition to the recently allocated $3 million under the REACH programme.

Morgan added that the REACH programme and the $45 billion Shared Prosperity through Accelerated Improvement to Our Road Network (SPARK) Programme, which is also set to commence this month, are both aimed at addressing the challenges Jamaicans face daily on the roadways.

“When we fix roads, it is not just about asphalt; it is about economic growth; it is about social equity. Fixing community roads equalises people. The cost of transport in rural Jamaica is significantly higher than in urban Jamaica, and that is part of the reason—the quality of roads in rural Jamaica and the cost to transport operators in those areas. There is an economic disincentive in many rural parts for people to invest and do business because of poor infrastructure; we are fixing that,” Morgan said, noting that the government is also mindful of climate change and is building disaster-resilient roads.