New MPs sound alarm over state of hurricane recovery

Three first-time parliamentarians used their maiden presentations during the State of the Constituency Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday to highlight the vastly varying regional impacts and recovery gaps left by last October’s catastrophic Category 5 Hurricane Melissa.

The three were Andrew Morris, member of parliament (MP) for St Elizabeth North Western; Hanover Eastern MP Andrea Purkiss; and Nekeisha Burchell, MP for St James Southern.

Morris, who sits on the Government side of the Chamber, told the House he was fighting back as he tried to assist residents in his constituency through the national roof programme.

“While we celebrate progress, we must address the glaring gaps that remain. Economic recovery for farmers and small business owners is imperative. Our small farmers lost everything, crops, livestock, and infrastructure. Likewise, local shopkeepers, restaurant operators, barbers lost their physical establishments and inventory. Targeted grant funding and restocking support are urgently needed to boost our local economy,” Morris said.

Purkiss, who sits on the Opposition benches, pointed to the “paradox” of her constituency, flanked by opulence yet not reaping the rewards.

“We are the corridor between two tourism capitals, Montego Bay and Negril, and home to three five-star resorts. On paper we should be the model of prosperity. But the prosperity this Government consistently preaches has not reached our people. Apparently, the prosperity stops at Great River Bridge. Long before Hurricane Melissa, Eastern Hanover was suffering. Melissa did not create the anguish, it exposed it. It laid the neglect bare. Eastern Hanover is not only the passage between Great River and Great Bridge. Our people are not traveling on roads; they are traversing riverbeds that were once roadways,” she insisted.

Burchell stressed, during her presentation, the need to restore people’s “dignity” following the hurricane’s devastation and bemoaned the slow pace of installing modular units.

“Melissa should change the development model. And we love to call Jamaicans’ resilient and Jamaicans are, but sometimes resilience sounds like a sophisticated way of saying ‘Dem will find a way’. But sometimes resilience is not what the people are asking for. A farmer loses everything, he finds a way. A woman loses the freezer that feeds her family, she finds a way. But the resilience of Jamaican people is not proof of the resilience of the Jamaican system. Students and teachers can’t learn in a room, they go under a mango tree; mango tree, they found a way, that’s not resilience,” argued Burchell.

The rural-area parliamentarians also raised concerns about poor water supply and the condition of roads in their constituencies.

karen.madden@gleanerjm.com