Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Desmond McKenzie says he is not expecting any major rainfall to relieve the current drought before May.

McKenzie was addressing a press briefing Tuesday, at his ministry’s Hagley Park Road offices in St Andrew, on the prolonged drought and the Government’s efforts to restrict the effects which have been feeding hundreds of bush fires and water shortages across the country.

“I want to urge the country to be responsible at this time. This is not the time for us to ignore the various warnings. This is not a time for the country to say, ‘No man, we soon get rain.’ Based on the forecast, the country is not expecting any major rainfall until around May, and there is no guarantee of that when May comes,” he told reporters.

The local Meteorological Office is predicting scattered showers across most parishes today to Friday, but these showers are unlikely to have any major impact on the drought now being experienced.

The local government minister said his ministry is working closely with the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation to reduce the effects of the drought.

“We will be pouring out our efforts and resources to ensure that we respond to the needs of institutions like the schools, hospitals and communities, wherever there is a need for water,” McKenzie said.

He noted that Rural Water Supply Limited, a Government-owned engineering company, has teamed with the National Irrigation Commission in the effort. “So, it is a whole-of-Government collective response to the crisis. That’s what we are facing now.”

According to McKenzie, the Government is at the stage of providing three more water trucks for three parishes, “which will bring the number of parishes that would have benefited from new water trucks coming directly from the ministry, to nine”.

At the same time he said that, hopefully, within another three months the country will be seeing how best the Government can tackle the provision of water trucks to the remaining municipal councils for the purpose of trucking water only.

McKenzie noted that on a trip to Portmore last week Wednesday one of the concerns raised by residents was that they were being charged fees for the water being trucked into their communities.

“I want to make it clear that the funds provided by the Government for the trucking of water to the consumer is free of cost. It is for domestic use only,” he warned.

He also urged municipal councils to monitor the situation and ensure that whatever water is provided is not used for washing motor vehicles.