Marvel Sewell, People’s National Party Member of Parliament for Hanover’s Green Island district (Photo: Anthony Lewis)
People’s National Party Member of Parliament for Hanover’s Green Island district, Marvel Sewell, is questioning why electricity supplier Jamaica Public Service (JPS) is delaying comprehensive bushing works on the power grid.
Sewell said at the Hanover Municipal Commission’s (HMC) regular monthly general meeting on Thursday that 95 percent of the storm damage to JPS infrastructure in the city’s jurisdiction was caused by fallen trees.
He argued that the damage could have been minimized if the company had paid more attention to infrastructure, such as clearing brush and trees from power lines and poles.
“I think if you have insurance, why don’t you clean your pipes so that when a hurricane comes you make a profit? You can’t have property if you don’t protect your property. There has to be some catch so that when your property gets crushed you make a profit of 10 times the value of your property. That’s my view. It’s not my property that I’m making a profit on, so why are you treating it like that?” Sewell questioned.
To back up his argument, Sewell cited an incident that happened near the Santoy post office, where he questioned why only two broken tree branches were cleaned up while others were left hanging on the service line.
“Currently, the Green Island division believes that if the wires are cut, the electricity will flow,” the councillor said, further calling for a meeting to be held between the power company and HMC.
Sewell also wants to set up a meeting with the National Water Commission (NWC) to better understand why recently installed generators at Logwood Treatment Plant failed to function, which he said resulted in the community having to wait days for water to be restored even after JPS was able to restore power to the treatment plant.
Sandy Bay District People’s National Party MP Andrea Dehaney-Grant said several poles had fallen in rural parts of the parish because the People’s National Party had delayed replacing faulty poles.
Meanwhile, Grant said the National Works Authority (NWA) had delayed snow removal on some rural roads under its jurisdiction, leading to residents clearing fallen trees and other objects from some roads.
Dehaney Grant said the residents were doing so to allow a clear path for JPS to arrive and restore power.
Lucea Deputy Mayor Dehaney Grant said not much is known about JPS’s restoration efforts and has asked the company to contact him to find out more about the progress of the restoration work.
Sandy Bay, Blackgate, Haddington and High Level Road are some of the areas the company announced on Thursday where teams will be working over the next 24 to 48 hours.
The previous day, the company named the communities of Fish River, Cave Valley, March Town, Campbellton, Birches Hill, Winchester, Montpelier, Sandy Bay and Haddington as areas requiring caution over the next 24 to 48 hours.
The company also said power had been restored to 88% of the island, or 609,000 customers, as of late Tuesday night.
Anthony Lewis
