In 2011, persistent rains associated with the passage of Tropical Storm Opheliaresulted in widespread flooding and left the communities of Massacre, Mahaut, Campbell, St. Joseph, Checkhall and Bena Wavin severely damaged.
Hon. Rayburn Blackmoore spoke about the need for river walls during a recent interview. He says the people of these communities are still exposed to similar occurrences; however a new dawn is coming for the people of his constituency and St. Joseph as contracts to address the issue of river walls are before the Minister for Finance.
“I am very happy that the contracts are now before the Ministry of Finance and we’re hoping to have the signing ceremony very soon and I’m hoping to have that under the Mahaut market.
The Minister confirmed that the construction will be executed in phases.
“We have been able to segment the work and to adopt a community based approached where the contractors will be coming from the Mahaut, Massacre and St. Joseph communities. I’m happy that the Labour Party Administration is able to address a long outstanding issue because the rivers traverse the said communities. And this was the case before I was born, before the Prime Minister was born. We in the Labour party are not saying that we inherited these shortcomings and there’s nothing we can do. What we have done is identified those deficiencies, defined them and embarked on a proper system of intervention.”
“This is what the Labour Party Administration is all about and I am happy to be part of this administration.”