WESTMORELAND, Jamaica – As he continues his tour in Westmoreland ahead of the local government elections, Prime Minister Andrew Holness is adamant that as a country, climate change should be at the core of election plans.

His comments come in light of the recent collapse of the West End leg of a road in Negril.

On Monday, the road breakage was evident after gushing waves crashed against the sea walls, leaving the road almost impassable.

It is for that reason Holness says he will be touring the tourist hotspot on Saturday.

“I am going to stop and look at the coastal damage that has taken place. We will do it first thing tomorrow morning,” Holness explained as he spoke to a group of green-clad party supporters on his tour in Bullet Lane, Petersfield on Friday afternoon.

Holness stressed that while the issue is not attractive to everyone, the discussion around climate change is pertinent.

“I have been talking about climate change at my conference. I raised the issue of climate change. We’re seeing the impact of climate change now, it’s changing the weather patterns, it’s changing sea levels and It’s having a significant impact on our infrastructure, particularly our coastal infrastructure,” he advised.

“When we say that Jamaica has mainstream climate resilience. We see this coming and we’re preparing,” he reassured as he spoke of the programmes and monies allocated through the SPARK [Shared Prosperity through Accelerated Improvement to our Road Network] programme, for the rehabilitation of roads in the parish.

This project will see the government preparing to implement a $40-billion road-improvement project to modernise more than 2,000 roads islandwide under the initiative.

Meanwhile, he said the government is “realigning them to move them inwards or reinforcing them with proper sea wall protection to ensure that they can withstand what will come.”

Kimberley Peddie