FALMOUTH, Trelawny — In a move to reduce the mosquito population and slow the spread of dengue fever in this north-western parish, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Desmond McKenzie has allocated some $6 million to facilitate emergency drain cleaning in the parish capital.

McKenzie made the disclosure in Falmouth during a tour of the Trelawny Northern constituency with Member of Parliament Tova Hamilton; mayor of Falmouth, Councillor C Junior Gager; councillors and representatives of government agencies on Friday.

“She [Hamilton] took me and she showed me some drains, and in the dengue season I am going to respond in a positive way by making available to the Member of Parliament, based on her request, $6 million for emergency drain cleaning in Falmouth as it relates to dengue [prevention],” McKenzie said.

He noted that the allocation had come as a result of the strong lobby by Hamilton, and promised that the Ministry of Local Government would be addressing some of the drain challenges in Falmouth.

“Now the Member of Parliament and the councillors, in their own right, have been doing what they can to improve the physical and social conditions of the community and so the ministry, through the various programmes that we have, is going to be paying some attention to the drains in Falmouth, based on the representation that the Member of Parliament has made. She took me and she showed me some drains,” McKenzie said.

Following Friday’s tour of a number of communities in the constituency, the local government minister also remarked that, “We are going to be moving expeditiously to address the problems affecting the garbage collection.

“The National Solid Waste Management Authority is here [on the tour]. We have already made some arrangements for some skips to be placed at strategic locations in the constituency, based on what we have seen on the tour. And, already, work has started by the National Solid Waste Management Authority to deal with the backlog of garbage in the area,” McKenzie said.

For her part, Hamilton was happy with how things turned out on the day.

“I am very grateful that he responded to the call to tour the constituency. Mind you, it’s a shortened tour because to tour this constituency requires a minimum five days to go through some of the issues that we have. But, we are starting somewhere today [Friday] and I am sure we will continue it — and I am hoping that all the benefits that we obtain from today’s [Friday] tour will be to the benefit of the people,” the first-term MP said.

Councillor Gager was also grateful for the $6-million drain-cleaning allocation.