In the wake of recent flood damage caused by heavy rainfall in several parishes across the island, impacted residents have been assured they can look forward to assistance after a team led by the Ministry of Local Government Rural Development surveys their communities tomorrow (February 9).

In a release today, the local government ministry said: “This Administration is highly cognizant of the disruption that the rains have caused in these parishes, and our response has, and will continue to reflect joined-up government in the delivery of support to our citizens.”

Desmond McKenzie, minister of local government and rural development, who formulated a special team of ministers, mayors and other members of parliament for the effort, plans to asses the conditions and pave further interventions to the flood-damaged parishes of St Ann, St Mary and Portland .

CHARLES JR, SAMUDA PART OF TEAM

The team includes Pearnel Charles Jr, minister of agriculture and fisheries and Matthew Samuda, minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation.

“It will also include the members of parliament from the constituencies in these parishes, mayors of the parish capitals and representatives from a number of agencies including Mr Varden Downer, senior director of project implementation at the National Works Agency,” the local government ministry said.

Dubbed as the ‘Inter-ministerial Tour of Flood’, work is said to already be under way, as the Ministry of Labour and Social Security is currently active on the ground in providing relief supplies, and one of the objectives of the tour is to see what more can be done to complement the work being done.

In addition to this, the ‘Inter-Ministerial Tour of Flood’ will help to quickly devise targeted interventions to help the affected sectors in these parishes, such as agriculture.