St Catherine:

Violence remains the country's number one hindrance to investment and development, Deputy Prime Minister Dr Kenneth Baugh told a group of stakeholders last Thursday.

Dr Baugh, who is also the minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade, was speaking at a forum of principals, chairmen of school boards and parent-teacher asociation presidents held at the Tacius Golding Comprehensive High School in his constituency of West Central St Catherine.

Dr Baugh said diplomats have queried whether downtown Kingston needs additional police posts to protect the investments of entrepreneurs.

Violence, he said, has become a feature of our schools and the wider society. He said that people ought to realise that a child's temperament is shaped in part while still in the womb. He challenged parents to become better deliverers of care and nurture to children.

- Elgin Taylor

PORT MARIA, St Mary:

Mayor of Port Maria, Richard Creary, and councillors of the St Mary Parish Council took to the streets of the capital last Saturday in a clean-up and beautification drive.

This initiative is part of a project on which the council had recently embarked. The aim is to beautify all the towns in the parish starting with Port Maria.

Mayor Creary said, "We have started with the capital town and then we will branch off into other areas. What we are doing first is cleaning up the areas that have accumulated a lot of waste materials over the years. After which, we will be planting trees and flowers in the different areas."

- Nedburn Thaffe

SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth:

Director general of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, Ronald Jackson, has stressed the need for farmers to promote disaster-risk reduction.

Speaking at the closing ceremony for the Hurricane Dean Recovery Project which was held at the Sydney Pagon Agricultural High School in Elim, St Elizabeth, last Tuesday, Jackson said, "I am calling for partnership between all the stakeholders towards mainstreaming and promoting disaster-risk reduction in the agriculture sector."

He indicated that during the last three decades, disasters which have occurred in the region have affected four million people a year, causing 5,000 deaths and cost US$3.2 billion in the physical losses.

In the last five years, he said, the region has experienced mounting economic costs associated with disasters. These costs have outpaced the rates of growth of our island economies.

- Michael McLean

PORT ANTONIO, Portland:

The National Water Commission (NWC) is all set to begin stage one of the Port Antonio Water, Sewerage and Drainage Project.

The NWC project is being funded by a loan of US$80 million (J$570 million) from the European Investment Bank. The first phase is to begin with the focus on identifying leaks along the Titchfield peninsula, which is at present undergoing major development, through collaborated efforts between businessman Michael Lee Chin, homeowners, Portland Parish Council and the Portland Chamber of Commerce.

Richard Williams, customer relations manager of the local NWC in Portland, explained that water- quality tests have already been done. He said lead testing was also done by NWC personnel.

"At present, we are busily correcting leaks throughout Port Antonio and its environs," he said.

- Gareth Davis Sr

OCHO RIOS, St Ann:

Ernest Smith, the member of parliament for South West St Ann, is appealing to the Government to make available $500,000 in emergency funds to the constituency to help ease drought there.

He said the prolonged drought was making life very difficult for residents and was now threatening the closure of several schools in the constituency, where water tanks were running dry.

Smith said money would be needed to truck water to affected schools and communities because neither the National Water Commission nor the St Ann Parish Council was able to cope with the situation at this time.

The MP said out that the entire parish of St Ann was served by only one Rapid Response water truck and another assigned to the parish council, but these clearly could not deal with the demand for water at this time and so private suppliers will have to be employed.

- Devon Evans

Black River, St Elizabeth:

Alumina Partners of Jamaica (Alpart) earlier this week, donated 12 fire extinguishers to basic schools in the company's operating areas of St Elizabeth and Man-chester as a contribution to fulfilling the requirements for formal school registration with the Ministry of Education.

The company has also donated a number of first-aid kits in response to the needs of the schools as they seek to meet the registration stipulations handed down by the ministry and which took effect on Wednesday, February 27.

Speaking in an interview with The Gleaner, Lance Neita, public relations manager of Alpart, said that the schools located close to the alumina plant at Nain and the mining areas in south Manchester have also been assisted with potable water where possible from Alpart's community resources.

- Rayon Dyer

BLACK RIVER, St Elizabeth:

The solid waste collection agency, Southern Parks and Market is concerned about the recurring problem of illegal dumping at a site in Bellevue, St Elizabeth.

The matter was forcefully raised at a recent meeting of the St Elizabeth Parish Council's Public Health Committee held at the council chambers in Black River.

Perment Lee-Chang, the council's public cleansing inspector, noted that illegal dumping has been happening frequently at the Bellevue site as she sought help from the parish council and other entities to combat the problem. She requested that the matter remain on the agenda for further discussion until it had been resolved.

"Despite persistent dialogue with the commercial operators (business people) in the area, there was a problem getting them to comply with paying for the collection of commercial waste. However, this has been hampered due to their slow response," said Lee-Chang.

- Rayon Dyer