$6.2 Million Disaster Mitigation Programme far Advanced in Corporate Area

The National Works Agency (NWA) is far advanced with its $6.2 million Disaster Mitigation Programme in the Corporate Area, to alleviate the possible effects of flooding in critical flood prone areas during the current hurricane season.
Manager for Communications and Customer Service at the NWA, Stephen Shaw told JIS News that the mitigation programme “seeks to ensure that gullies, waterways and small drains are cleared”.
“We found that it is far cheaper to go into these communities before the hurricane season starts or before we have any major disaster, to ensure that the waterways remain free of debris, overgrown trees and shrubs, to allow the free flow of water to reduce damage to property and person,” he explained.
Mr. Shaw noted that work on all the targeted drains and gullies in the parish of St. Andrew have been completed, while in Kingston, work should be completed within the next three weeks.
“In St. Andrew, work was done along the control sections of Papine to Red Light District, Papine to Hardware Gap, Golden Spring to Mount Airy, Unity to Tom’s River, and in Kingston work was carried out in the Cooreville, Riverton, Spanish Town Road and Calaloo Mews areas,” he added.
The Communications Manager said that residents in the communities that have benefited from this disaster mitigation programme are elated. “We have received quite a remarkable response from persons in the communities that have benefited from this exercise, many of these persons were awaiting the start of this programme. They were very happy to join us in our plans at mitigating the kind of disasters that we have witnessed in some of these communities over the years,” he said.
The NWA is implementing this disaster mitigation programme in all 14 parishes across the island at a cost of $100 million.