ANNOTTO BAY, St Mary — Sixty-year-old Kerron Buchanan used to be a Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) customer, but when the bills got away from him his supply was disconnected.

“I paid my bill every month, but each month it just got bigger and bigger ’cause money carried over from the previous bills. It reached a stage I couldn’t afford so it then got cut off,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

As he spoke he watched eagerly as a JPS-contracted electrician installed a breaker box at his house in Cargill Lane, Annotto Bay. Buchanan is one of more than 70 residents who had their houses rewired on January 21 under the Rural Electrification Programme (REP) being done by Ministry of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport (MSETT) in partnership with Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF).

“The first thing I will do is play some music and clean up the place,” he said gleefully.

Like Buchanan, cosmetologist Malika Murray is elated that her house will now be legally on the grid. It has been burdensome, she said, having an illegal connection.

“When you see a JPS van, your heart leaps because you don’t know if it’s your house they are coming with the police,” she said.

Murray lauded the utility provider for the initiative and promised to keep her end of the bargain.

“My obligation is to ensure that my bill is paid every month,” she said.

She encouraged other residents of Annotto Bay and nearby communities to join her in the light.

“No more hide and seek. Legal light, and it feels good,” an elated Murray beamed.

More than 300 residents of St Mary South Eastern will be regularised under the programme. According to former REP liaison officer Omar Love, phased rewiring of the community began in 2023 “under the then Member of Parliament Dr Norman Dunn”. Annotto Bay was the first stop in St Mary South Eastern and more than 100 houses were regularised then, he said.

“What we see now is a continuation across the constituency,” Love told the Observer.

REP has a mandate to take electricity to rural sections of the country, part of the Government’s thrust to have power available islandwide in order to stimulate economic activity. In 2006, JSIF signed an MOU with REP and JPS to facilitate the regularisation of households in 12 inner-city communities. The work involves REP wiring the houses and certifying work done by hired contractors.

An elated Malika Murray, who was legally connected to the Jamaica Public Service Company grid on January 21, watches a contractor work. (Photos: Ingrid Henry)