TWO agencies of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development will be conducting a sensitisation programme targeting residents in communities prone to flooding.

Portfolio Minister Desmond McKenzie said the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) and the Social Development Commission (SDC) will spearhead a comprehensive programme entailing visits to those areas. They will aim to educate residents about the potential danger they face in the event of severe weather, and the steps they should take to safeguard themselves.

Minister McKenzie was speaking during the third in a series of semi-virtual town hall meetings which the ministry hosted at St Mary Anglican Church Hall in Port Maria on Thursday.

He said the sensitisation exercise and other similar engagements are imperative, particularly against the background of more than 70 per cent of Jamaica’s population, and substantive infrastructure, being located on the island’s coasts.

Of note, he pointed out, only three of Jamaica’s parish capitals are not situated near the sea. These, the minister said, are Spanish Town in St Catherine, May Pen in Clarendon and Mandeville in Manchester.

McKenzie said while Jamaica has not been directly hit by a major weather system for the last five years, “we have been impacted” by several that have passed through the region.

Consequently, he said the Government will continue “doing as much as we can to sensitise the Jamaican people [about] the [potential] dangers we face.

“When Mother Nature speaks we [must] take the steps that are necessary to prevent the loss of lives; we must be proactive. And how can we be proactive? We must listen to the warnings, take heed, [and evacuate when advised],” he said.