The bi-partisan committee set up to monitor and ensure equitable distribution of hurricane relief supplies agreed yesterday that parish disaster committees would be the vehicles through which relief supplies would be channelled.

The parish disaster committees, which are headed by the country’s mayors and include government and non-governmental organisations, will report to the bi-partisan committee, which is co-chaired by People’s National Party (PNP) chairman Robert Pickersgill, and the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange.

A release yesterday under the signature of Grange said reports to the committee indicated that the parishes of St Thomas, St Catherine, Manchester, St Elizabeth and Clarendon were the worst hit and will receive $1 million each to assist in the supply of water to various communities. Other parishes would receive $500,000 each.

According to Grange, candidates and councillors have been advised that a list of needy persons requiring assistance must be submitted to the parish disaster committees. The list will then be passed to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security for verification and implementation.

Local Government Minister Dean Peart has, in the meanwhile, made an appeal for owners of trucks to assist the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) in the clean-up.