We are now into the fourth week since Hurricane Beryl struck the island. As far as one can see, the recovery process has been painfully slow.

This is especially obvious in the restoration of electricity to the hardest-hit areas of the coastal communities in Clarendon, Manchester, and St Elizabeth. In St Elizabeth, long regarded as the breadbasket parish of Jamaica, and rightly so, communities have been hit with the triple whammy of loss of power; loss of water, which depends on electrical power to keep pumps fired up; and the colossal loss of crops, many of which were not far from being harvested.

Needless to say, this has been a source of great frustration for residents. Minister of Energy Daryl Vaz expressed the collective annoyance of citizens with monopoly light and power company Jamaica Public Service (JPS) in Parliament recently, which has missed deadlines and given unreliable assurances. Even in areas where reports of restoration are supposed to have occurred, this has not been the case. Then, to add insult to injury, the company announced that it would provide estimated bills to customers in these devastated areas. This was later rescinded and a palliative of discounted bills offered. Too little, too late.

One wonders at the untold tragedy that would have occurred if the country had taken a direct hit from Beryl. If the tepid response that we are seeing now is anything to go by, one could expect to see riots in the streets, as people’s frustration exceeded boiling point.

Frankly, it is clear to this writer that JPS is not up to the job. Despite its protestation to the contrary, it is clear that it was not prepared for this eventuality. Thirty six years after Gilbert devastated the country, important lessons have not been learnt in preparing for devastating natural events like Beryl and others that will inevitably visit us.

If there is any lesson to be learnt, it should be quite clear that monopoly of an important service such as electricity generation in the country has to end. The Government is the junior shareholder in the company, holding 19 per cent of the shares, with the remaining 81 per cent being held by Atlanta-based Mirant Corporation. So, even as a junior partner, it has to hug up some of the responsibility for the tepid response to the recovery effort. In his last budget presentation, Minister of Finance Dr Nigel Clarke revisited the Government’s intention to divest its shares by way of an initial public offering (IPO). This would broaden citizen ownership and participation in this important entity.

But is an IPO the best course of action at this time? I am not sure this would dent the monopolistic hold JPS now exercises. May it not be better to sell the shares on the open market with a clear stipulation to the buyer, a mandate if you will, for an expansion of electricity generation by a specified period as part of the licensing agreement to operate? This expansion of activity would break into the monopolistic hold that Mirant now exercises. And, in my opinion, it is precisely this monopoly that has caused the company’s nonchalant response to Hurricane Beryl. Something has to change. Over to you, Minister Vaz.

In the meantime, the Government must pursue with greater vigour the roll-out of green energy solutions to our energy problems. There is much talk about what needs to be done but very little action towards implementing strategies to get the work underway. We suffer from what I once heard referred to as a paralysis of analysis, where decision-making becomes crippled by overwhelming tissues of information which often languish in forgotten files for long periods.

It is time to get action-oriented; to give the necessary incentives to those individuals and companies that have sound plans and strategies already planned out but do not have the resources to hit the ground running. Enough of the talk.

Let us get down to action on this and related matters. We can do it. We do not have to wait until the next catastrophe strikes and then run around like chickens that have lost their heads.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest, social commentator and author of the books Finding Peace in the Midst of Life’s Storms; Your Self-esteem Guide to a Better Life; and Beyond Petulance: Republican Politics and the Future of America. He is also host of the podcast Mango Tree Dialogues YouTube. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or stead6655@aol.com.