Neita Garvey wants hurricane recovery decentralied

WESTERN BUREAU:

Natalie Neita Garvey, the opposition spokesperson on local government, says the Government’s post-Melissa recovery is too slow and is calling for the decentralisation of its implementation to make it more effective.

“Where is the recovery, who is recovering, and where is the recovery money going?” asked Neita Garvey while addressing a recent community consultation in Hopewell, Hanover.

She lamented the fact that all of 10 months after the passage of Hurricane Melissa, which did extensive damage to western Jamaica, there are still people in the region who are still suffering from displacement who are yet to get any form of assistance.

According to Neita Garvey, Hurricane Melissa has exposed how unprepared the country was as it relates to disaster preparedness.

As it relates specifically to Hanover, she said services expected of the local authorities, such as improved road conditions and garbage collection, have emerged as major areas of concern because of a national government coordination problem.

“Many roads are still impassable, many communities still have breakaways and land slippages. In this day and age, the National Works Agency in each parish is one that rarely has any place in governance as it gets no funding, has no resources, and they are unable to respond or react to any emergency in the parish. Everything has to come from Kingston, like Kingston alone is Jamaica,” she said, noting that the issue of irregular and non-collection of garbage across the parish is now creating a health and environmental hazard.

“We have to pay the taxes even when the services are not delivered …. if we do not pay our taxes, we get notices. So if we are expected to pay the taxes, we are expecting to get the services that the people of Hanover deserve,” she said while questioning how much money the Government has allocated for expenditure as hurricane relief in the parish of Hanover to date.

“I want to know of the $814 .8 million that the Government said they were going to provide to repair roads, how much has actually been spent in Hanover, which projects have been completed. We also want to know which projects remain outstanding, and what is the completion date for those projects?” she said.

She called for the Hanover Municipal Corporation to be given the resources they need to do the work that is required in the parish.

“Recovery is not just about rebuilding roads and roofs. It is about restoring a safe living environment,” she said. “We should, therefore, continue to highlight the bad garbage accumulation, the illegal dumping, the rodent infestation, the blocked drains, the damaged sanitation infrastructure, the stagnant water, the vulnerability of children, elderly people, and other vulnerable groups.”

She said that if Hanover was properly resourced with the professional capacity and technology to solve local problems, the parish would be better able to meet the needs of the people, insisting that the country needs a decentralised local-government system that is properly financed, measurable, transparent, and driven by the needs of communities rather than announcements from Kingston.

“Jamaica needs to fundamentally rethink the relationship between central government and municipal corporations and citizens,” she said.

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