WESTMORELAND, Jamaica — Member of Parliament for Westmoreland West, Dr Wykeham McNeill is urging the government to release emergency funding to carry-out activities to alleviate flooding in sections of his constituency.  

McNeill made the appeal in a release from the People’s National Party (PNP) today, stating that sections of his constituency have continued to be inundated with water  from heavy rains over the weekend.

The affected areas, according to the MP are: Broughton, Station Road, Bay Road, McNeill Land in Little London and Peggy Barry in Grange Hill in the parish.

“I spoke to Minister Warmington on Saturday advising him that there was a real threat to life and property and that the communities needed assistance from central government. We had toured with the Superintendent of roads and works, the Mayor of Savanna la Mar and the Councillors from the affected areas, examining the damage that was done to the road surface and where the flooding had taken place. It was obvious from our observation that steps need to be taken to prevent any further dislocation in the first instance, followed by repairs to the road infrastructure as soon as possible,” McNeill explained.

He described the situation as “dire” and said residents have lost livestock, crops and other personal properties; children are unable to attend school as their homes are uninhabitable and some roads are impassable.

“We were able to secure some assistance last week from the Ministry of Labour, but much more is required on a larger scale to encompass all those who have been most severely affected,” he said.

McNeill said the flooding began last week after the parish experienced heavy rains for an extended period. However, he added that the situation remains unpredictable as the waters seemed to be subsiding but the rains started again, creating even more damage than previously experienced.

He reasoned that some emergency work will have to be done to clean the outlets and speed up the release of the water.

McNeill asserted that the problem has become overwhelming as Little London, which is the most severely affected area, consists of a wide drainage network all of which has been affected by the excess water and will need extensive repairs.

As such, McNeill is appealing to the Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Local Government, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, the Ministry of Agriculture and their respective agencies to hastily render assistance the people in the affected communities.