ST ANDREW, Jamaica – Following tours of sections of St Andrew and St Thomas, which were affected by the recent heavy rains, Prime Minister Andrew Holness is urging the public to consider climate change when thinking about where they decide to build a house.

“I would use this opportunity to urge Jamaicans, we understand the issues of settlement, we understand the issues of housing and where you can find marginal land to live on. But, in seeking to live, take into consideration the environmental issues and the climate change issues, particularly the environmental issues having to do with your access to water, the stability of the soil, if you have to clear the land how will that affect the stability of the slope,” Holness said while speaking with reporters.

He noted that over the past couple of decades the country has experienced more frequent weather events “that are of high intensity.”

“Normally, we would have had a 50-year weather event, but now we are having these 50-year weather events once every two years. And if that is the case it is a creeping destruction of the infrastructure and the probability of your house, which is built in a danger zone being damaged, increased. So maybe 30 years ago, 50 years ago, you could say I could build here and I don’t have anything to worry about, that’s not the case now”.

After touring the affected areas, Holness said much of the major damage has been attended to by state agencies which have been very effective and responsive in clearing roadways and blockages.

“What we would want to point out to the country is that the NWA and the other agencies of the Government have responded very quickly… I gathered there were 70-odd roads that were affected, blocked. But I would say about 95 per cent of those roads have been cleared. So, equipment has been mobilised right across affected areas and work is being done,” Holness stated.