MONTEGO BAY, St James — The Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) is calling for improvements in the Government’s trucking of water to schools currently being impacted by the drought that is taking a significant toll on sections of the island.

The association is also urging authorities to provide impacted institutions with dedicated emergency funds to address the issue.

“The JTA is therefore calling for strengthened water-trucking arrangements and the examination of additional reliable sources of potable water. There are several parishes that are not experiencing water shortage from which water could be trucked to affected parishes,” argued JTA President La Sonja Harrison during a media briefing at Sea Gardens Hotel in Montego Bay, St James, on Wednesday.

During the briefing — called to highlight several issues impacting the education sector including the slow Hurricane Melissa recovery process — Harrison also proposed what she referred to as a “practical intervention” by providing affected schools with dedicated emergency funding for water.

According to the JTA head, school administrators should be allowed to promptly engage approved private suppliers when established Government arrangements cannot respond on time.

“Do not require schools to find money they scarcely have to purchase emergency water and then wait to be reimbursed. Put the emergency resources where the emergency is occurring,” Harrison urged.

To support her argument, she pointed out that water is essential not only for hydration, cleaning, and meal preparation, but also for infection prevention.

“There is now an additional public health dimension. Ministries are now in discussions with schools regarding hand, foot and mouth disease. The public health guidance is clear: Handwashing with soap and water, regular cleaning and disinfection.

“We cannot, on one hand, tell a school — wash hands, clean, disinfect, strengthen infection-control practices and on the other hand, leave that school wondering, ‘When will the water truck arrive?’” added Harrison.

On Wednesday Minister of Water Matthew Samuda used a post-Cabinet media briefing to announce that with the drought condition worsening in sections of the island and the Meteorological Service forecasting that some parishes could see little or no rainfall this month, the Government has initiated emergency procurement procedures to purchase 5,000 black water tanks.

Samuda indicated that 1,000 of that number will go to early childhood institutions, while 2,000 will be distributed based on a needs assessment. The others will go to farmers and people with disabilities.

The minister had earlier announced that special provisions will be made to ensure water is supplied to schools and medical facilities.

In the meantime, the JTA president also raised the issue of inadequate perimeter security for schools.

“Administrators and school boards have written letters, submitted requests and raised these concerns in meetings, for years,” she said as she referenced Spanish Town Infant school as an example.

“Yet schools remain without adequate perimeter security to properly control access to their compounds. The principle is simple: No fence, no defence,” stated Harrison.

She acknowledged that while a fence cannot prevent every incident, an adequate perimeter is a basic layer of school safety that establishes boundaries, facilitates controlled access, and makes unauthorised entry more difficult