LUCEA, Hanover – The Hanover Municipal Corporation’s promise to provide half a million dollars to support the health department’s well-needed rodent control programme has been deemed woefully inadequate to address the overrun of rats in five towns across the parish.

Medical officer for the Hanover Health Department, Dr Kaushal Singh told the corporation during its regular monthly general meeting last Thursday that while his team is grateful for the sum committed, it is a far cry from what is needed to carry out an effective programme.

It is estimated that it will cost $2 million just to purchase bait and bait stations alone.

“Five hundred thousand, you can understand, is a drop in the bucket,” argued Dr Singh.

“As of now, how are we going to utilise this five hundred thousand?”

Last month the Jamaica Observer reported that the municipal corporation had pledged to assist the health department with its rodent control programme.

At that time the deputy mayor of Lucea, Andria Delaney Grant stated that even though the corporation gave the commitment, the health department had failed to take up the offer. Dr Singh has since then been trying to access the promised financial support.

“You will be getting the funds. I know that your estimate was over two point something million dollars but of course, even though we made the commitment, we still don’t know where the funds are going to come from,” Mayor of Lucea and Chairman of the Hanover Municipal Corporation Sheridan Samuels told Dr Singh during the meeting. “We are going to find it; somewhere, somehow, we are going to find it. So, make do with whatever resources you have.”

The cost to undertake the programme does not include labour, and Dr Singh has proposed that a multi-agency approach can be taken to offset the cost. He also suggested that councillors could recommend people that can assist in carrying out the programme and the health department will train them.

Councillor Devon Brown (Jamaica Labour Party, Hopewell Division) accepted that suggestion but said the National Solid Waste Management Authority should also absorb some of the cost. He argued that their failure to collect garbage in a timely manner had contributed to the rat infestation.