Golding

PRIME MINISTER Bruce Golding has announced that a cadre of 150,000 young people from high schools across the island are to be trained to provide the appropriate response in the event of a disaster, or in its aftermath.

He said the participants would further benefit from the principles of leadership and discipline acquired through the exercise. Members of community based organisations will also be trained in the area of disaster preparedness and mitigation.

One of several initiatives

Golding was speaking at the launch of the Emergency Recovery Project at the May Pen Health facility in Clarendon last Friday.

The training programme is one of several initiatives to be funded through the Emergency Recovery Project. The US$10 million Emergency Recovery Loan, which the Government has obtained from the World Bank, will also be used to fund rehabilitation work on 72 schools, 22 health centres and 16 roads across the country, which were extensively damaged by Hurricane Dean last September.

The Jamaica Social Investment Fund, will be responsible for the management and implementation of the project, which will take place in two phases over the next three years.

Golding urged Jamaicans to assume far greater responsibility in helping to prevent extensive damage and destruction, which generally occur with the passage of natural disasters, such as hurricanes.

He explained that in light of the increasing economic challenges, the Government was not in a position to fund a large scale repair or replacement of the country's infrastructure.

Prevent damage

"We can prevent, substantially, the damage that is done when these disasters come, and that is why we put so much effort into mitigation, into sensitisation, into training, into alerting people," he said.

The prime minister expressed dissatisfaction with the level of response to disasters, pointing out that much more would have to be done to ensure promptness and efficiency in that regard.