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The long awaited proposed draft of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of Jamaica is expected to head to Cabinet next month. The process, which commenced in 1998, has been spearheaded by the Industrial Safety Department at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. Speaking to JIS News Robert Chung, Deputy Director of Occupational Safety and Health at the Ministry...

The National Solid Waste Management Project has been allocated $75 million in the 2004/05 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives. The project seeks to: improve the management of solid waste throughout the island, develop and implement new operational procedures as well as appropriate legislative and administrative systems, and convert the Riverton City Waste Disposal site into a...

Information Manager of the Barbados-based Caribbean Emergency Response Agency (CDERA), Terry Ally, has said that the Caribbean was moving from a "response and relief" mode towards strengthening partnerships within the region to create a culture of awareness and preparedness in disaster mitigation and management activities in the 21st century. Mr. Ally named policy makers, the media and popular culture as...

Twenty families from Rose Hall Lane in Kingston, whose homes were ravaged by fire in January of last year, recently received personal care packages and cash valued at $200,000 from several donor agencies. In a handing over ceremony coordinated by the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) in an open lot in the community, not far from where...

The St. Thomas Fire Division will be embarking on a project to assist needy persons, especially the aged, whose homes have been destroyed by fire and other disasters. Superintendent of the Division, Louiston Gooden, told JIS News that the department would be building one or two-room dwelling houses as well as carrying out repairs to homes of the "most needy"....

There has been a constant outpouring of goodwill and support from Jamaicans towards the Haitian refugees who have fled their country in the last two weeks. Several companies, community groups and organizations and private individuals have been donating food, clothing and other personal items to the emergency centres where the refugees are housed under the care and protection of the...

The Trelawny Lay Magistrates Association will be hosting its annual prayer breakfast, at Roy's Villas, in Deeside, Falmouth, in the parish, on Thursday, March 11, under the theme, 'Love Thy Neighbour as Thyself'. The event, which is scheduled to begin at 8:00 a.m., will see Governor General, His Excellency the Most Hon. Sir Howard Cooke, as a special guest, while...

With the pending introduction of the Access to Information Act, the Ministry of Local Government, Community Development and Sport has already established its own Access to Information (ATI) Unit. The Ministry's Director of Documentation, Information and Access Services, Althea Scott, who has assumed responsibility for the ATI Unit, told JIS News that in preparing to meet the deadline, "we realized...

Mayor of Kingston, Councillor Desmond McKenzie recently met with authorities of the Guadalajara Town Council in Mexico, where he held talks on the development of the Kingston market district. "If we can in any way do half of what they have done in Mexico, it is something that I believe would augur well for us here in Jamaica in terms...

The St. James Parish Council has been allocated 1,000 new street lights for the entire parish. This was announced yesterday (September 4) by the Director of Planning at the St. James Parish Council, Sophia Kerr-Reid. She was speaking at a Physical Planning and Environment Committee meeting in the Council's Chambers in Montego Bay. Members of the Committee decided by vote,...

Mayor of Morant Bay, Joan Spencer, is seeking a meeting with taxi drivers and executive members of the National Association of Taxi Operators (NATO), to iron out the differences that exist between the Council and taxi operators in the parish. She made the request at a church service held for the drivers yesterday (Sunday, August 31) at the Faith Baptist...

Opal Beharrie, Secretary Manager of the St. Elizabeth Parish Council, has said that the Council would be lobbying for a new market for Black River. In an interview with JIS News, Miss Beharrie said that given the state of the existing facility, nothing could be more appropriate than the construction of a new market. "It is really in a deplorable...