FALMOUTH, Trelawny–Some 135 poor families whom Government is relocating from Dump, an innercity community on Tharpe Street here, to the much more affluent Hague residential area, are distraught over the lack of basic infrastructure at their new location.

“We are willing to move, but the problem we are having now is that proper infrastructure is not in place. No proper toilets… the road is not completed, the water is not completed, neither is electrification in place,” lamented Esmie Clarke who has lived at “Dump’ for the past 15 years.

The residents who are being relocated to make way for a $7.5 billion cruise shipping pier developed by the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and the Port Authority of Jamaica, have settled in Dump informally since 1972.

Some of them became further incensed after a month-end deadline for removal was communicated to them during a meeting with Dr Patrick Harris, Member of Parliament for North Trelawny; representatives from Ministry of Health and the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ).

“We will have to have proper toilet facility to move there, or we can be prosecuted by the health ministry. We were told by the MP that some of the pits will be dug. They are working and getting them dug but we will have to concrete them for ourselves and have to do so by the end of the month,” bemoaned Clarke.

Another sour point for the residents is the $45,000 each family will receive from the HAJ to assist with the setting up at the new location. The money is scheduled to be paid in two segments. The first $25,000 is scheduled for payment today while the rest will be paid at a date to be announced.

Efforts to reach the Harris and Joseph Shoucair, the Managing Director of the Housing Association of Jamaica (HAJ) proved futile up to presstime.