THE Government on Tuesday announced a $150-million emergency allocation for the trucking of water and the procurement and distribution of water tanks to mainly rural areas experiencing significant challenges due to persistent drought conditions.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who made the disclosure in a statement to Parliament, said 50 of the worst-affected constituencies will be given $1.5 million each, with some to receive additonal amounts due to the severity of the drought’s impact.

“We assess that there are 50 constituencies that are impacted. The impact is islandwide, but if you look at the Corporate Area, including in Portmore, there are areas that are not affected by drought because, for example, the storage capacity at Hermitage and Mona are up at 70 per cent. So we want to make sure that the resources that we have are targeted to the areas that are really in need. There are 13 constituencies which will not benefit from this distribution of resources,” he said.

He noted that most of the allocation will go towards the trucking of water and that a limited amount will be set aside for water tanks.

“We will keep a small reserve where we see we need to have emergency procurement of water tanks. The Government already has in place a water tank programme, so we’re not going to replicate. But the water tank programme, because it’s such a large programme, it must go through all the processes and we are now at the final stage of procurement. So, we should be at a point where we can distribute tanks so we wouldn’t want to replicate. Only if we identify that there is an emergency situation, then out of this $150 million we would look at supporting some tanks,” he said.

He pointed out that for Clarendon, in the south-west, south-east, central, north-west and north central constituencies, an additional $2.5 million will be provided and the municipal corporation will get $5 million.

“The reason why we do it this way is that there are many communities that are informal settlements; they don’t get their water through a utility service. And there are also many customers who get water from ancillary services. They get water from a local system — from entombment of a small river or a spring or a catchment, and those might also be running dry. So we give an allocation to the parish council for trucking to be able to reach those communities that are not on the utility network,” he explained.

Holness also noted that in St Elizabeth, its north-east, south-east and south-west constituencies will be allocated an additional $2.5 million and the municipal corporation will get $5 million. So, too, will the Westmoreland Central, East and West constituencies.

He noted that while the Hanover East and West constituencies and St Ann Northwest constituencies will also be given the additional $2.5 million, their municipal corporations will be given $7.5 million each.

“We will have a reserve of $5 million and that reserve we will be used to treat with the 13 constituencies that are not given an allocation. But if an emergency were to arise or the Member of Parliament is able to point out that there is a specific community that needs some service, then from that $5 million we will be able to respond over the next four weeks,” he said.

The reality, said Holness, is that the funding is not enough and cannot solve the problem entirely, but stressed that “it is what we are able to do right now and it is for a short period of time as we expect that we will get rainfall starting the end of April into May.

“We are really making this as a budgetary arrangement for the next four weeks. At the end of four weeks we expect that the drought conditions will ease,” he said.

In the meantime, the prime minister assured the residents of Westmoreland and Hanover, particularly Negril and environs, that the Government will continue its support, if, as projected, dry conditions persist into the summer.

“So again, if the projected rainfall does not ease the condition, then I should be back here with a further allocation to ensure that our citizens have some support,” he said.