HEALTH and Environment Minister Rudyard Spencer yesterday announced Government's intention to create a master plan for sewerage as part of efforts to improve Jamaica's sanitation.

The plan, the minister said, will include the institutional arrangements for the provision of sewerage services in Jamaica.

Spencer, who was addressing the opening of a regional sanitation workshop in Kingston yesterday, gave no indication of when the plan would be formulated but said that the effort would complement a number of other initiatives.
Among the initiatives are:

. the preparation of a national medical waste policy, which is shortly to be submitted to Cabinet for approval;

. the publication by the ministry's Environmental Health Unit of the minimum requirement for wastewater treatment systems and excreta management in Jamaica; and

. the development of wastewater and sludge regulations by the National Environmental and Planning Agency (NEPA) under the Natural Resources and Conservation Act.

Spencer, in the interim, urged continued collaboration to address sanitation needs not only in Jamaica, but also across the Caribbean.

"Sanitation might very well be one of the most overlooked and under-appreciated areas in public policy. This workshop must, therefore, be a catalyst for the region to give meaningful attention to improved sanitation and to educate our peoples about its importance," the minister told his audience of mostly water and sanitation specialists at the Knutsford Court Hotel yesterday.

"It is important for policymakers and technocrats alike as there is need for a paradigm shift in the policy formulation process and a greater level of integration across ministries and agencies in planning and monitoring as well as in the delivery of services," said the minister.

The two-day sanitation workshop was put on with the support of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), the World Bank through Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP), the Global Water Partnership Caribbean (GWP-C), and the Jamaica office of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO).

Halle Berry and her picture-perfect family co-ordinate in grey

Cheating PS

'What was I thinking?' Chris Brown speaks out