WESTERN BUREAU – Efforts are currently underway to ensure Montego Bay’s continued readiness for the possibility of disaster, according to Faye Headley, coordinator for the parish’s office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management.

Headley told the Observer Wednesday that there was the regular, day-to-day cleaning of the city that formed part of the ongoing preparedness efforts. In addition, she said, there was the continuous drain-cleaning programme that took place in the parish every three months. The next cleaning, she said, will take place next month with special emphasis placed on those in the urban centre.

“Those in town are washed more frequently. Because of the rains, (debris washes) down more often, and people continue to throw bottles and other debris in the drains… Because of that, we have to wash the ones in town more regularly,” she said.

She added that the flooding which was once a norm in Montego Bay had been averted in recent times due to the drain-cleaning efforts that have been conducted quarterly for about three years now.

Superintendent of road and works for the parish council Tubal Brown said that in addition to the cleaning of the drains, the completion of the South Gully Drainage Improvement Project had also helped to make life easier for the people of Montego Bay.

“For the last four years we have not had flooding in the town – not in the city of Montego Bay. What it would mean is that despite the fact that we have work to do, we have been holding our own,” Brown said.

Added he: “I am not going to boast and tell you that everything is in order, because it is not. But, we have been doing well. The matter of drainage and the cleaning of drains is a continuous process but is also subject to financial resources. And within the realm of the financial resources at our disposal, I think we have been trying to cope.”