MEMBER of Parliament for Westmoreland Eastern Dr Dayton Campbell has welcomed news that the community of Darliston, in the constituency which was severely battered by Hurricane Melissa in October last year, will have electricity by the end of this week.

But Campbell — who on Tuesday pointed out that electricity had not been restored to any premises in his constituency — told the Jamaica Observer on Thursday that this will be a temporary solution to impact some 500 Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) customers in the constituency where residents have been without electricity for more than two months.

Campbell noted that the fix, which was announced by Minister of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport Daryl Vaz, will come from a generator and argued that not until the build-out of the JPS system in Paradise in central Westmoreland is done will a significant number of residents in the constituency be impacted.

Speaking at Wednesday’s post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, Vaz said the JPS had confirmed that Darliston would be lit within that time frame, and that its restoration works will continue between now and the end of January for the parish, which was ravaged by the Category 5 system which made landfall there on October 28, 2025.

The energy minister in the meantime sought to clarify statements he made on Tuesday during the sitting of the House of Representatives regarding the restoration of power, where he stated that in one instance 40 miles of lines were rebuilt with over 1,000 poles from Ferris Cross to Hodges — Westmoreland to St Elizabeth — to restore approximately 2,000 customers.

“That information was incorrect. Work has started with 100 poles that have been laid so far out of the total of about 1,000 poles; it’s about 40 miles of roadway, so it will take some time but the work has started. I want to apologise for the misinformation that was given in Parliament and I will make sure that it is corrected on Hansard, and also to state very clearly that the information I stated was erroneous and incorrect, the information was given to me by the Jamaica Public Service,” Vaz said.

“At no time in my presentation did I mention eastern Westmoreland having light. I gave the statistics on the parish of Westmoreland. Westmoreland has 34,603 customers, approximately 17,096 customers are out at this time,” Vaz emphasised further.

He noted that while this meant that approximately 49 per cent of customers in Westmoreland continue to be out of power, it should not be overlooked that in mid-December only 18 per cent of customers had been connected.

“They are now in 51 per cent in a matter of a few weeks,” the energy minister pointed out.

In the meantime Vaz again took aim at criticisms levelled at the Government over its decision to loan US$150 million to JPS to facilitate speedy Hurricane Melissa restoration efforts without extending the current existing licence, which expires in 2027.

“The Opposition’s position in response to my statement in Parliament on November 25 was that they were not in support of the release of US$150 million unless they knew where the balance of money was coming from. That simply says that if they were where I am standing, that the US$150 million would not have been released and not only would eastern Westmoreland not have light, but all of those affected parishes would have a much slower restoration,” he contended.

Noting that the JPS had said that outside of the loan it would be the last quarter of 2026 before restoration would be completed, Vaz said there had been no other option to guarantee the timely restoration of power to Jamaicans.

“When I spoke in Parliament in November I categorically stated that we are going to have full restoration by the end of January, early February, save and except for any critical areas. We are now at 93 per cent restoration. We have 51,000 customers still out; 30,000 of those are ready to receive electricity and will receive between end of January and early February,” he said.

He said the remaining 21,000 customers “are not ready to receive power” through no fault of the JPS.

“What we are going to do [through a multi-agency approach] is identify those areas to see how the Government can target those areas in collaboration with JPS to get them ready to receive electricity,” he said.

He said he had insisted that JPS should begin “to provide a daily update on the 51,000 customers as to where they are and what the projected time is for them to get back light”.

CAMPBELL…this will be a temporary solution to impact some 500 Jamaica Public Service Company customers (Photo: Karl Mclarty)