Minister of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change, Hon. Robert Pickersgill is urging rural communities to, this Labour Day, clean and restore the areas surrounding water tanks that have been out of use. Mr. Pickersgill told JIS News that there were close to 400 tanks across the island that are in need of repairs. He said Rural Water Supply Limited...

The final in a series of public consultations on the Draft Water Sector Policy and implementation plans will be held on Wednesday, April 30, at the Courtleigh Hotel in New Kingston, beginning at 6:00 p.m. The draft Policy and plans for implementation are intended to provide a guide to the work taking place in the Ministry, and will clearly show...

The National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) is reporting a 66 per cent reduction in sightings of the ferocious Pacific lionfish in Jamaican waters. This is just one of the many successes achieved under the recently concluded Mitigating the Threat of Invasive Alien Species (IAS) in the Insular Caribbean (MTIASIC) project, which was launched four and half years ago. The...

The first in a series of four regional consultations on the Water Sector Policy and Implementation plan was held at the Wexford Hotel in Montego Bay, on Thursday, April 10. The forum, being staged by the Ministry of Water, Land Environment and Climate Change, in collaboration with the Global Water Partnership-Caribbean, gave residents of Trelawny, St. James, Hanover, and Westmoreland,...

A sum of $23.5 million has been budgeted in the 2014/15 Estimates of Expenditure, currently before Parliament’s Standing Finance Committee, to continue implementation of Phase Two of the Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience (PPCRII) by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), this year. The allocation will provide funding for a Programme Preparation Grant (PPG), and implementation of the first of...

The Government has allotted $6 million to the hydro chlorofluorocarbons (HCFC) Phase out Management Plan Implementation Project, in the 2014/15 Estimates of Expenditure. The proposed budget is now before the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives. The project seeks to freeze importation of HCFCs at 2009 and 2010 average import levels (baseline consumption) and reduce baseline consumption by...

The public will be given an opportunity to influence the recently drafted Water Sector Policy, through a series of public consultations to be staged at key locations island wide, starting April 10. The consultations will outline the policy in detail, and capture the views of the public. This was disclosed by Senior Director in the Policy and Monitoring division of...