Approximately 4,500 residents of Rose Town — an inner-city Kingston community — are celebrating the completion of a US$2-million infrastructure development project which will see them benefiting from improved water supply, road and sewerage facility.

Funding for the project was provided by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales through a grant from Kuwait. The project was undertaken over the last seven months, with some 100 people from the community gaining employment over the period.

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller expressed gratitude to the prince for his interest in Jamaica and in particular Rose Town. She commended the residents for their strong community spirit and also for their efforts in developing a library and community centre.

“Where communities are strong and united, we always have peace, and it is not difficult for development to take place in such a community,” she said during last week’s dedication ceremony for the water and sewerage projects.

Noting the magnitude and importance of the work, which involved the paving of the main road from Harry Street to Spanish Town Road, installation of sewer lines and improving access to potable water, Simpson Miller urged the residents to protect the project and keep Rose Town beautiful, as she addressed them in the area.

“It is the responsibility of every citizen of this community to protect everything that is belonging to the community. It is yours, it is about you; it is not about anybody from the outside… It is about the future of your children. What we should want to see is that Rose Town is kept as beautiful as the rose,” she said.

Simpson Miller noted that if the majority of residents are doing well and setting the example, others will think twice before they try to destroy the community.

She urged the National Housing Trust (NHT) to see how best it can partner with the people to get their housing project completed, and pledged to assist in getting the relevant ministry to speed up the process for the acquisition of land titles.

The prime minister also thanked Philanthropist Michelle Rollins and former United States Ambassador to Jamaica Brenda Johnson for their work on behalf of the Rose Town Foundation.

Members of the Benevolent Society Committee, Patricia Sanford and Angela Brown, jointly expressed their gratitude on behalf of the community for the project. They outlined the community’s priority areas as water, housing, skills training and employment and lauded Prince Charles for supporting the community’s vision and for helping to change the community landscape.

“We wish to acknowledge his belief in us. Big up to Prince Charles and the Prince’s Foundation,” they said.

In the meantime, Don Mullings, Managing Director of M&M Jamaica Limited, the contracting company for the project, spoke of the positive reception he received while undertaking the work. He has pledged his company’s assistance to do whatever is possible outside of his contract for the development of the community.

Mullings also committed scholarships for two tertiary level students to the University of Technology for the next four years. He has, however, left the selection criteria to the community.

Among those attending the event were Special Advisor to the Prince of Wales,

Hank Dittmar; British High Commissioner, David Fitton; and Jamaica’s Consul

General to New York, Herman Lamont.

— JIS