MONTEGO BAY, St James – Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) deputy leader Horace Chang, who yesterday was sworn in as water and housing minister, says the island’s informal settlements are among the areas that will be given immediate attention during his term in office.

“We have identified 495 informal settlements with a population of about 700,000 people which we will have to deal with as a matter of urgency,” Chang told the Observer, shortly after he was sworn in as Cabinet Minister.

Most of the settlements, he noted, have been suffering from decay and neglect for many years.

“The inner-city areas which are suffering from the decay and neglect for many years are largely confined to large urban centres like Spanish Town, the Corporate Area, May Pen and Montego Bay,” the new water and housing minister noted.

He said in a bid to address the worrying matter of informal settlements, ways will to have to be found to ensure that low-income workers get access to “quality” housing.

Minister Chang, who is the sitting member of parliament for the constituency of North West St James where a number of informal settlements exist, stressed that he was prepared to work assiduously to put in place the necessary legislative and institutional framework, in an effort to address the matter of informal settlements.

Up to the time of his Cabinet appointment, Chang was the Opposition spokesman on Housing and Urban Renewal.

He was among the three JLP parliamentarians who contested seats in the parish of St James during the recent general elections, who were appointed to the Bruce Golding- led Cabinet.

The others are member of parliament for East Central, St James, Edmund Bartlett who has been given the tourism ministry portfolio, and Clive Mullings (West Central St James) who was appointed minister of energy, mining and telecommunications.

Meanwhile, the water and housing minister told the Observer that as a matter of priority, he would be making a concerted effort to bring water to the scores of communities across the country that are without the commodity.

“Water is very important and we will have to get it to the areas that are without running water,” he said. “We are going to identify those areas and to see what is available and how we are going to get it to the communities,” added Chang.