KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) councillor for the Chancery Hall Division of the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC), Duane Smith, is demanding immediate action from Mayor of Kingston and St Andrew, Councillor Angela Brown Burke, to have Corporate Area drains cleaned.

According to Councillor Smith: “The Corporate Area is fortunate that the threat of being hit by Tropical Storm Earl this week has been averted. The outcome could have been in part due to the inaction of the KSAC”.

Councillor Smith, in a news release from the Jamaica Labour Party, said that the municipality cannot continue to only rely on God’s grace and the prayers of its residents to be spared from the worst effects of disasters.

“The KSAC has a duty to ensure that it takes whatever steps are necessary to protect citizens from the dangers of these catastrophes.

“It has been approximately two months since the start of the 2016 hurricane season, yet the only KSAC Division represented by the JLP which has benefited from drain cleaning activities is Tivoli Gardens,” Councillor Smith noted.

“Every month at the council meeting we are told that the KSAC has been meeting its targets, yet the drains have not been cleaned since 2015, and a high percentage of the parochial roads are in a state of disrepair,” Councillor Smith added.

He noted that a growing number of roads are without streetlights, and the situation is expected to worsen because the Government, and it agencies reportedly owe the Jamaica Public Service $4.4 billion, of which the KSAC owes $760 million.

“It is time for her to get back to resolving the problems of the municipality,” Councillor Smith said. “I am urging her to display more loyalty to the municipality and its citizens, and make an urgent response to the threat of natural disasters at this time, by providing the funding needed to ensure that the drains are cleaned to reduce the impact of these disasters on people and property in Kingston and St Andrew.”