A memorandum of understanding was signed, Thursday, to establish an advisory monitoring committee (AMC) for the Montego Bay waste water facility management.

The AMC, which consists of representatives from a wide cross section of public and private sector organisations across the tourism city, will now help the National Water Commission (NWC) monitor the Bogue sewerage ponds.

The Montego Bay AMC is the fourth to be established across the island as Ocho Rios, Negril and Port Antonio already have active committees to monitor their sewerage systems. MOUs have already been signed in Ocho Rios and Negril and the environmentalists are hoping that Kingston will also benefit from establishing its own AMC.

The first committees were established as a means of monitoring the internationally funded sewerage systems in Ocho Rios and Negril.

“The USAID, the Japanese government and the European Union that funded these sewage systems put forward the idea of private management for the facilities,” explained housing and water minister Donald Buchanan before Thursday’s signing in Montego Bay. “However, former water and housing minister, Karl Blythe, mandated then chief operating officer Desmond Malcom to come up with a suitable compromise between what our friends from abroad and ourselves were thinking of in terms of the way forward.”

The AMC was instituted as a way to monitor the towns’ waste water activities. According to Buchanan, it will assist in the monitoring, assessing and evaluation of the management; as well as the maintenance of delivery of waste water services.

It will also make recommendations for improvements and extensions; promote, implement and monitor public education activities that will lend to the proper use of the waste water system and increase customer connections.

The Montego Bay Marine Park Trust has been selected as the AMC’s secretariat while the Montego Bay chapter of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association will ensure that its members are environmentally friendly.

The environmental sub-committee of the Parish Development Committee will be responsible for advising on environmental and ecological relationships and the impact of improper waste water treatment and disposal.

Citizens’ representatives will identify and find solutions for community complaints, representatives from the two area fishermen’s co-operatives will look at aspects of their industry while the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry will act as the vice-chairman in the absence of the chairman, the National Water Commission.

“Resource organisations like the Bureau of Standards, the St James division of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, the Montego Bay Community College, NEPA and the SDC will, among other things, work with all members of the committee to support the achievement of its objectives,” Buchanan said. “So we can see that there is a path to be played by all the AMC members as well as other related agencies.”