ST ELIZABETH, Jamaica — Against the backdrop of Hurricane Melissa’s devastation last month Minister of Local Government Desmond McKenzie has declared that the rebuilding must be done effectively and in accordance with Jamaica’s National Building Code.

“Our building code has stood up, but there needs to be a lot more and the country must be prepared to work with us when we introduce measures which will be done to preserve life and property,” McKenzie said on Thursday in Santa Cruz, St Elizabeth.

“This thing where people just get two sheet of zinc and some ply and put down a house in the middle of a river bed and when you talk to them they say they are poor. The time has come when we must forget about whether you poor or rich, because disaster don’t know nobody,” added McKenzie.

He suggested that greater enforcement to ensure builders adhere to the National Building Code will happen in 2026.

“If we look at what has taken place, it is the majority of us who say we are poor that suffers mostly from disaster, because of how we conduct ourselves in terms of putting down structures.

“I am making a general appeal that persons must understand that if the law says that you can’t [build substandard] …We are going to be rolling out all of this in the new year, but the country must recognise that we cannot continue to operate like this much longer, it is not going to be possible,” added McKenzie.

He shuddered at the possible impact on life in Jamaica if Hurricane Melissa had made landfall in the Corporate Area instead of the south-western end of the island.

“Ask yourselves the question if Melissa had come straight across Kingston what would happen to Jamaica?” said McKenzie.

“One man in the country told me ‘bwoy Mr McKenzie me glad Melissa never come a Kingston, because country can’t manage town’. What he is in fact saying is that town can manage country, but country can’t manage town, because that is where the seat of Government exists,” added McKenzie.