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Reducing the effects of flooding is on the agenda as Jamaica and the rest of the world observe World Water Day on Monday, March 22. Jamaica is often affected by severe flooding and frequent flash flooding usually with "insufficient lead time to effect an adequate mitigative response," said Errol Douglas, Hydrologist at the Water Resources Authority (WRA). Mr. Douglas, who...

Minister of Transport and Works, Robert Pickersgill, said yesterday (March 18), that the Government was committed to ensuring that Jamaicans were safe on the nation's roads and was taking "practical measures to ensure that road safety is no accident". "The Ministry.through the Transport Authority, has introduced new regulations to govern public transportation. With regard to policy, we intend to launch...

Predicting Jamaica's weather over a five-day period has become easier as a result of the use of advanced technology by the National Meteorological Service. The equipment has also facilitated high levels of accuracy in the forecasts. "Weather prediction has become increasingly more accurate for the Meteorological Service. It is such that the Service is now able to have accurate five-day...

Former President of the Republic of Haiti, Jean Betrand Aristide, who is currently on a brief visit to Jamaica to be reunited with his family, wishes to allay any fears that he will use his time in the island to engage in political activities or any act that could threaten the fragile peace emerging in Haiti. "I want to assure...

For the past two years, the Family Court in Kingston and St. Andrew has been staging parenting seminars, designed primarily for its litigants and persons utilizing its services. These come against the background of a recognition by the Court that there are serious deficiencies in parenting skills of litigants. Rosemary Neale-Irving, Resident Magistrate and Judge at the Family Court for...

For more than two decades the Mandeville Craft Institute (MCI), at 1 Grove Road, has been making an indelible mark on the lives of young Jamaicans seeking to acquire income-generating skills. Originally established by the Rotary Club of Mandeville in the early 1980's, the Institute then catered mostly to the needs of young mothers who had dropped out of school...

Small and medium sized enterprises (SME) are encouraged to "get out of line and go online" by participating in courses on the Jamaica Trade Point portal which will begin on March 22. This trade facilitation portal, which was developed by the Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) in conjunction with Fiscal Services Limited, allows exporters and importers to carry out trade related...

Scores of Jamaican entrepreneurs, corporate leaders and investors eying investment opportunities in Jamaica turned out at the official launch of the Jamaica USA Chamber of Commerce, Florida (JAUSACC), last Wednesday (March 10) in Fort Lauderdale. The event, which is being viewed as another link in the strengthening of relations between Jamaica and the United States, also saw the installation of...

More than 200 graduate teachers have so far been placed in the island's basic schools, as the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture, steps up its programme to put at least one graduate teacher in each early childhood institution. There are approximately 2,000 institutions offering early childhood education in Jamaica. Minister of State for Education, Dr. Donald Rhodd, gave this...

The European Union (EU) Banana Support Programme is currently holding a series of awareness seminars on the Moko disease, as it joins the Ministry of Agriculture's efforts to contain the disease that affects mainly bananas and plantains. These seminars, which began on March 15, will continue until April 5 and will be held in the parishes of Portland, St. Mary,...

The Ministry of Water and Housing is moving to establish a new International Hydrological Programme (IHP) National Committee to oversee water management and land use across the island. Water and Housing Minister, Donald Buchanan, told participants at a three-day workshop of the Caribbean United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) IHP National Committee at the Knutsford Court Hotel yesterday...

The House of Representatives on Tuesday (March 16) unanimously approved the recommendations of a report from the Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC) on House-to-House Re-verification and review of Constituencies and Boundaries, which, among other things, will see the maximum number of constituencies into which the country may be divided increasing from 60 to 65. Leader of Government Business in the House...