By Fernando Davis

Montego Bay, St. James

The structural damage caused by continuous rain and heavy flooding must be addressed expeditiously, says Everald Warmington, the minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation.

Warmington, who toured sections of St. Elizabeth and Southern St. James with a delegation of government ministers and representatives of the National Works Agency (NWA) on November 25, said now that the rain has somewhat subsided a critical assessment is being made of the extent of the damage with the hope that work can commence quickly in a number of areas.

“The main problem was that the rain was falling continuously where it wasn’t possible to do a comprehensive survey of the damage,” he noted.

“This tour today from Ginger Hill in St. Elizabeth, and which will take us to Mocho and other areas in Southern St. James, is to help us to get a fuller picture of the damage.”

The minister further noted that he recognised that motorists and commuters have been finding a number of roadways in certain parishes hard to traverse, and added that the NWA was already in mobilisation mode and ready to deal with repairs.

“We had started a survey to come up with a programme to deal with potholes and badly damaged roads after the first set of rain,” Warmington added. “Then the rains started again, forcing us to take a wait and see so we could get a fuller picture as to the extent of the damage.”

Warmington appealed to motorists to exercise caution while using the roadways, adding that surface conditions have worsened in many areas over the last few weeks and could prove tricky for road users.

For his part, Homer Davis, the minister of state in the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, said he was happy for the attention being given to some of the badly damaged roads in sections of his Southern St. James constinuency.

“Today we toured from Mocho to Vaughnsfield… to Welcome Hall, Mount Horeb via Barnett Bush and to Anchovy through Mafoota and to Roehampton so as to have a better appreciation of the road conditions within the constituency,” Davis said.

“I have always lobbied for rural development and we have to start somewhere. Transformation of the rural areas can be of significant benefit to the development of a nation.”