Deputy mayor of Kingston, Councillor Winston Ennis, is expected to report to next month’s meeting of the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) on the trucking of water to residents of the municipality.

That followed Opposition Councillor Gareth Walker’s (Brandon Hill Division) questions, raised at an earlier council meeting, at which he argued the need for councillors to be allocated funding for trucking water to the people in their divisions as well as to accommodate more cooling centres for street people in the midst of the current heat crisis.

Raising the issue in the council at a recent meeting, fellow Councillor Audrey Smith-Facey (Payne Land Division) noted that a positive response had been given to Councillor Walker’s request for the allocations to truck water in their divisions. She said that at that meeting Mayor Delroy Williams had indicated that an announcement was made that an allocation would be made available to the councillors to truck the water.

She also pointed out that the mayor had indicated that he would speak with the responsible minister and send a “round robin” response to each member. She added that this was a reminder to the mayor that, so far, “no response had been received with respect to the issue”.

But Deputy Mayor Ennis has taken responsibility to ensure that the query is forwarded to the ministry, after which the council will be informed of the results of his query.

Another question from the Opposition came from Councillor Eugene Kelly, who, noting that the city has suffered “the hottest week since temperatures have been recorded”, saw the need for the cooling ports, requiring an early response from the council.

“Since we are in charge of outdoor cooling ports, can you say whether the KSAMC will be setting up cooling stations for the thousands of street persons in the municipality?” he had asked.

Councillor Ennis maintained that the issue would be taken to the next KSAMC Poor Relief committee meeting and a response made available to the next meeting of the council.

A cooling centre is an air-conditioned public or private space to temporarily deal with the adverse health effects of extreme heat weather conditions. Cooling centres are seen as one of the possible mitigation strategies to prevent hyperthermia caused by heat, humidity, and poor air equality.

The location should have good and reliable air conditioning. It should also be accessible to people with disabilities and people who use mobility devices and ensure that enough space is available to maintain six feet of physical distance between household groups and limit the number of people who access the location accordingly.