The Government has approved $1.4 billion for the constituency-based mitigation and clean-up programme in response to the damage that occurred last week due to heavy rains.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who made the announcement in Parliament on Tuesday, November 21, outlined that the programme will allocate J$22 million for each constituency to undertake minor civil works and public sanitation, which he said, becomes necessary at the end of the hurricane season this month and coincides with the Christmas period in December.

“The programme will implement targeted interventions with the following key priority rankings; the reopening of blocked roads, cleaning of critical drains which have now been heavily silted, patching of main thoroughfares which have been scared, construction of new structures such as retaining walls, small river training if you can do that,” Holness said.

The prime minister further noted that as funds become available, the aim is to have members of parliament execute minor road rehabilitations.

“Road rehabilitation, the allocation there is J$10 million, no reallocation is permitted from this category, so the minimum that you can spend is J$10 million, however, a maximum of J$5 million may be transferred from other areas to road rehabilitation, allowing for a total maximum utilisation of J$15 million,” the prime underscored.

Some J$6 million has been allocated for de-bushing, J$3 million for drain cleaning and J$3 million for garbage collection.

The prime minister noted that the programme will be implemented by the National Works Agency (NWA) and the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA).

“The funds will be used to clean critical drains for road patching, de-bushing and sanitation, all agency fees will be covered by the project funds ensuring that no fees are deducted from the constituency allocation,” the prime minister added.