IN the face of claims that the Government’s response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa has been inadequate and slow, Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness on Tuesday pointed to the speedy acquisition of 12 trucks for the National Water Commission (NWC) as proof that there is no credit to the allegations.

Late last week Holness declared that his Administration would not sit idly by while misinformation and deliberate falsehoods are spread to confuse and divide the Jamaican people.

He declared his intention to wage battle against those who seek to distort the truth in the wake of criticism over the Government’s handling of the Hurricane Melissa recovery efforts.

On Tuesday, an obviously pleased Holness pointed out how quickly the trucks were acquired.

“What you’re seeing here today is the Government, through its budget — specifically through the Natural Disaster Relief Fund — making allocations for the NWC to go ahead and enter into an accelerated process to acquire these units. It’s very important for the public to know that this was done under emergency procurement. You see how we have shortened the time,” said Holness, during a ceremony to hand over the trucks at the NWC’s Marescaux Road base in the Corporate Area.

Holness said that a few months ago he handed over eight units to the NWC which took roughly a year to procure.

“At that time I said that the NWC should procure more. They procured another eight. Those eight are still in procurement. There are so many people who don’t have water as a result of the disruption in the public utility supply [by Melissa] so we have had to use emergency procurement procedures. I would say that it is a matter of three weeks since we made the decision in Cabinet, made the allocation, and now I am pleased to hand over these trucks.

“Any reasonable… citizen must be thinking why is it so long in procurement. I am sure that after this presentation today, the citizenry will start to question the very dense bureaucracy that we have and while it is there — and necessarily so to protect the value of the public purse and the value of what the public purse purchases for the benefit of the customer,” Holness added.

He declared that the Government would not want to sacrifice compliance but argued that there must be a way for compliance to be accelerated “so that the customer not only gets the monetary and accounting value but also the value in service. Can you imagine if we had to go through the regular process. What would have happened to the people in Westmoreland and St Elizabeth?”

The 12 trucks cost approximately $200 million and were bought to bolster Jamaica’s emergency water distribution capacity following the Category 5 storm which destroyed buildings, farms, utility infrastructure and much of what was in its path.

Following the passage of Melissa, power outages, among other factors, hindered normal operations at the NWC, leaving several communities, particularly in the south-western parishes, without potable water.

Many have been depending on trucked water from the NWC in the more than one month since the passage of Melissa and the new trucks are expected to improve delivery of the precious commodity to those in need.

The trucks have storage capacities ranging from 10,000 to 20,000 litres, representing an added 146,000 litres of water hauling capacity per cycle. These heavy-duty, carbon steel trucks are 2025-2026 models and are factory-new. They are equipped with multi-point sprayer systems and heavy-load axles for challenging terrains.

Six of the trucks will be deployed to Manchester, St Elizabeth, Hanover, and Westmoreland. Two units will be deployed to St James and Trelawny. The NWC’s north-east region, comprising St Ann and St Mary, will get two units as well, while one unit will service Kingston, St Andrew, and St Thomas and one unit will be deployed to Clarendon and St Catherine.

Holness also used the handover ceremony to underscore that the NWC is no longer facing significant debt and declared that it was the work of his Administration that helped to make this possible.

“It’s a major change. Ever so often the Government of Jamaica would have to make a massive provision to relieve the balance sheet of [the NWC] of significant debt. Thankfully, we haven’t had to do that in a while, certainly not since my Administration.

“However, we do understand that the NWC would not have all the capital required to undertake the infrastructure development that is required,” Holness said.

— Jason Cross