KINGSTON, Jamaica – Ninety-six per cent of the 1,201 respondents to a recent OBSERVER ONLINE poll said the government should impose stricter measures to curtail building in disaster-prone areas.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, during a tour of flood-affected parishes on May 17, noted that another factor that led to the widespread flooding, apart from improper drainage, was the issue of informal housing settlements especially in flood-prone areas.During a stop in Guys Hill, St Catherine, the prime minister said, “It is instructive that the areas which we have toured so far are areas that are close to the riverbank and greater effort should be taken to ensure that the rules are enforced as it regards to where people are allowed to live and the government has to be far more proactive in ensuring that people do not settle in areas where we already know that they are at potential risk and vulnerable.”He outlined that the government will be moving to curtail the haphazard approach to human settlements — to make sure that people do not build where they shouldn’t.The country between May 20 and 27 experienced persistent heavy rainfall, which severely affected sections of St Elizabeth, St Thomas, Kingston and St Andrew, St Catherine, Clarendon, Manchester, Westmorland, St Mary, Portland and St Ann.The rains resulted severe infrastructural and agricultural damage estimated at $2.2 billion.