Commissioning Ceremony: Runnit and Middle Quarters Pipeline Projects
Address
By
Dr the Most Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP
Prime Minister of Jamaica
At the
Commissioning Ceremony: Runnit and Middle Quarters Pipeline Projects
On
March 14, 2025
______________________________________________________________
Allow me to acknowledge the first citizen of Black River, your mayor, and immediately after that, the former mayor and your members of parliament who are here, councillors and councillor caretakers, and you, the lovely people of St Elizabeth, the parish of my father.
I consider myself a parishioner rather a parishioner and I do recall many, many, many summers in the parish on my father’s farm and this is where I learned many important and valuable principles of life including hard work, the value of hard work, the value of service, humility, and respect; and I have come to love and respect the people of St Elizabeth because they demonstrate a very high level of independence but not only that, they also display a very high level of peace.
I had the great privilege of speaking to the high command of the parish and at this point let me wish Senior Superintendent Minto a speedy recovery. I gather he was in an accident recently as yesterday but I was informed this morning that the parish continues to do very well from the last time I got an update, which was last month, that there was only one murder reported in the parish and that you are tracking 80% behind where you were last year this time and these are some amazing statistics
It goes to show that peace is achievable. Peace is possible. None of you here, I can say with a great sense of certainty is causing, creating, or contributing to crime and violence in your parish. It is but a few- maybe less than 1% of the population. In fact, it’s definitely less than 1% who are the cause of criminality and violence. All of you are decent law-abiding citizens captured by a few troublemakers, and it is time that all the decent law-abiding people of the country rise up in unison as one, support our police officers and our police officers in turn must treat the people with respect as we have seen here in the parish and form an unbreakable bond that locks out the criminals, that throws them out of your parish and then we will have to make sure that we have a sustainable peace. It requires all of you to be wardens of this peace.
What we have achieved in the parish can continue if all of you here commit to working with the police, to share information with the police because you recognize that it is not in your interest to keep the very small number of troublemakers around you. Run them out of your community, throw them out, push them out and the police knows how to take care of them justly and appropriately.
My visit with you today is not about security. My visit to you today is about water. Water is obviously life, and everybody here wants to have water. Maybe 50 years ago, it was sufficient that the district had a standpipe. Maybe 30 years ago, it was sufficient that there was a water main on your road but definitely today everybody wants water in their house, in their kitchen, and in their shower. And so, the government’s task in the provision of water, based upon the legitimate expectations of the people, is not just to pull the water out of the ground or out of the river- that is the production of potable and irrigable water supply, which we have done today.
Looking at the old Pepper to Gutters, what we call the Greater Mandeville Water Supply Project, which an element of that would have been to create a new well and rehabilitate the existing well, put in new pumps and various other sensors and systems to manage those pumps so that they don’t go down and to regulate the electricity supply and then to put in some very huge ductile iron pipes. I believe these would be 24 inches in diameter so they are this wide and we will pump water from Pepper, (that’s where I spent most of my time as a youngster in the summer) and that water will be pumped up Spur Tree and go to a relief station which will then pump further into central Manchester and the Northwest Manchester.
A year ago, I met a lady whilst I was on campaign in the local government election in 2024 and one of the things she complained about was that at her age, she was in her 70s heading to 80, and she complained bitterly that she had no water, and her complaint was not just the lack of water. Her complaint is that at her age she can’t carry water on her head anymore so she without water to her home could potentially be deprived of it or more realistically, the cost for her to get water would be far more because she would obviously have to pay someone to get the water to her.
So while she would take some comfort in knowing that this massive multi-billion dollar project, which moves water from St Elizabeth, Goshen, Pepper up to Spur Tree and possibly to pass her yard gate that that is being done but it is not the instant solution because this project has been going on now for the past 18 months or a little bit more than that but this is how these projects are. It takes time to dig the well. It takes time to build a pumping station, and it takes quite some time to dig those trenches and lay the pipes properly so that they don’t break when the heavy trailers drive over them or when the pressure increases in them so that is being done, and we are trying to move as quickly as possible.
We’re not just looking at capital infrastructure, which takes up time before you feel the impact of it in your shower. We’re also looking at- I don’t want to use the word short term, because in some areas, this would be what you would call or describe a sustainable solution. We have announced a project that would bring water tanks to several vulnerable, over 10,000 vulnerable households in Jamaica.
In fact, more than that, we are targeting about 50,000 vulnerable households in Jamaica over three years where we will provide 200, 400, 600, 800 up to 1000 gallon tank, depending on the assessment of the situation and indeed provide guttering for the collection of rainwater and provide support and training for youngsters to develop the skill of doing water harvesting within certain communities.
That project is as already started. It is ready to roll, and you are going to see the project now in full rollout starting today. Minister Samuda has assured me that they have now secured almost about 10,000 water tanks in place and those are going to be distributed right across Jamaica. So, if you have already been assessed, usually your MP or some other entity would have made contact with you, the Ministry of Water, and if you are assessed as one of the households in need of the tank then very soon those tanks will be rolling out to your home.
Now, I don’t know if the lady I met in northwest Manchester is one of those persons benefiting from the tank. I do hope she is. If I could remember her name, I would go and find her but we will try to find her because I’m certain it was recorded when I had the interaction but I would really want to provide a solution for that lady because there is a solution provided by the government for almost every household that is without water in Jamaica.
Now, in as much as we are providing these solutions, we are very sensitive and we are very careful that as we do these large capital works, these multibillion dollar projects and we are moving water from certain communities, that the community from which we are moving the water is not deprived of water themselves. So, in the lovely community of Runnit which is where the wells have been dug for this massive Greater Mandeville Water Supply Project, we have also spent 8 million Jamaican dollars to put in a kilometer and a half of two inch water main to ensure that the people in that community have water running pass their gate, and if they choose to become a customer of the NWC, which I think all of them will be, that they can have water in their kitchen and in their shower.
So, that community is now served with water and we are here now in Middle Quarters to commission the installation of pipelines. Everyone would have probably thought that this community, Middle Quarters, everybody knows about the great shrimp, and everybody drives pass here coming through Holland Bamboo and this area is such a lovely area you would have believed that you had a reliable water infrastructure. As it turns out, it is not the case and it is this government, my administration, yes, the Andrew Holness led administration that is putting in one kilometer of six-inch ductile iron pipe to ensure that this area is properly served with water as we did in several other communities across Jamaica.
Minister Samuda pointed out that the NWC is not just investing in the infrastructure, whether it is tanks or putting in wells and putting in the ductile iron pipes. We recognize and we know that water is an important and indeed critical part of the cost of living to the citizens. For some, it could be a significant portion of your household income that you have to pay for water, and we know that there have been several households that have been deprived of the utility of water and because of that, they have been disconnected from the system. But you can’t live without water so what you end up doing is paying more for water because you’re either going to have to go buy it from a truck, drive go and get it, beg your neighbour and then you have to pay your neighbour something, and then not having the water increases your inconvenience so it is not in your interest not to have the water. It is not in the country’s interest for you not to have the water and it is not in the NWC’s interest to not have your water rate payment.
So, what we did as a government recognizing the significant cost this is to your cost of living, is to put in place an amnesty and Minister Samuda would have given you some of the figures. The amnesty is going very well. Persons are taking advantage of it. They are coming in. They are clearing their debts. We have over 22,000 applications and what I’m going to do, I’ll announce it in the budget, but I can announce it here. We’re going to announce the date of the extension of the amnesty so that more Jamaicans who are not a part, who have not yet registered for the amnesty could get an opportunity because we understand and we care.
Now, I want to say a little thing here because yesterday I heard a promise made. I don’t think anyone comes into politics with ill intentions against the people. I think people come into politics wanting to do good but having been in this position for more than nine years, I have come to understand that you can’t as a politician have a wish without having wherewithal. There are some politicians who wish for things, but they never pay attention to the wherewithal, meaning the ability to actually deliver. I made sure that I will never be the politician that wishes for things without having the wherewithal to deliver because I don’t believe in wishful thinking.
So, you will note that almost every Friday I am on the road breaking ground, commissioning, handing over, all kinds of things happening. And in fact, as Minister Samuda pointed out, the Ministry of Water is saying, Prime Minister, you spend too much time on the housing. And the NWA is now saying, Prime Minister, there’s a whole heap of roads now under SPARK, you need to spend some time on that so the people know what we are doing. Before they used to say they have a pipeline of investment and a pipeline of project and when you turn on the pipeline, it’s just air.
We’re not into this pipeline business. What we have now, our economy is on track. Yes, and we have a trailer load of projects: capital projects, small projects, medium sized projects, large projects and programmes, things that are going to improve your life. I could spend every day from now to whenever the election is just delivering project after project after project after project. I could do that because this is the first government that made promises and commitments but also focus on the wherewithal. I want you to pay attention to that word, the wherewithal, the ability to deliver.
No other government has the track record that this government has but let me be the first to tell you, let me be the first to say that after 40 years of disinvestment in our infrastructure, in our systems, that it won’t happen in two or three years, that everybody will get the water that they want, that everybody will get the house that they want, that the transportation system will be fixed overnight; it takes time. What this government invested in, in the first term and the second term of our administration, is while we are delivering, we have been increasing the ability and pace and resilience and sustainability of our economy and that is what gives us the wherewithal to deliver the benefits that matter to you.
The phase that we are now in the development cycle of the country is yes, we have the wherewithal, but what we need now is to increase the pace of delivery and that means we have to get the public bureaucracy. The public bureaucracy, it means the government’s entities and agencies, the public servants, the civil servants and everyone who works in the government to increase the pace at which they deliver the projects,
I don’t know if you watch the long-distance race. You know that they start out at a slow pace, right? And they’re running and they’re running and then when they reach coming close to the end of the race, you notice that they pick up the pace and they start to lift the legs up to the chest and they’re moving. We are in that phase now where we need to get the public sector bureaucracy to increase the pace of delivery. I give you a little statistic.
Almost since this administration has come in, we have increased significantly the capital budget. The capital budget is what we spend on infrastructure. For example, this year, you heard Minister Williams say that the easiest thing for her to have approved was the 15 billion dollars, which I had said that we were going to spend here for water, which most of it will go to the NWC for over 40 capital projects, massive projects. And she said that based upon her experience and the commitment of the government to water, that was the easiest one to approve.
Now, almost every year, the amount that we approve for capital is not fully expended because of some issue in the public bureaucracy. Either some procurement issue happens, some delays happen, some administrative or regulatory barrier happen. People who have the statutory lawful authority to make decisions that politicians don’t have sometimes don’t make the decisions, so the project stayed here in limbo and then by the time the year is out, you don’t get your water even though the budget is there for it.
That is a problem in government that we have to fix because if the economy is delivering a certain level of capital budget, then the pace of utilization of the public sector needs to increase even faster than the pace at which we are providing the budget, so that the benefits to you can come in quickly and that is the next phase of our economic development cycle and that is why we say we are going to now pivot into growth, because a part of why we are not growing is that we are not utilizing the capital budget as quickly as we should. And it’s only one administration can do that and that is the Andrew Holness led administration.
I heard some wishful thinking being applied and it sounds very good. Indeed, I like it, that we must give a flat rate to pensioners. It sounds good and I’m sure every pensioner would immediately say, yes, this is something that we should do but I want you to just think with me for a moment because this is not the first time that a politician has stood up in parliament and made commitments without first thoroughly assessing the economic impact on the wherewithal to actually deliver that commitment.
The story is told of a former very popular politician who stood up in Parliament and announced free education and his minister of finance didn’t even know. Now, every benefit that is given comes with a cost and while you may get the benefit and believe it’s free to you, it costs somebody else so politicians must be very careful how they give benefits that redistribute equity in the society and how those benefits impact the ability to actually deliver the benefit.
Now, you will note that there are some challenges with determining who are actually pensioners. You can say, well, you have the list of pensioners from government or are we also going to give pensioners who worked in the private sector? That wasn’t quite clear as to how they would do it, but let’s say we knew who are all the pensioners but how do you treat with the question of someone who will freeload on the benefit? Meaning that someone is a pensioner, they have a house, they rent out the house, who should get the benefit? Is it the pensioner who owns a house and just them alone get it? Or what about the four or five other people who live in the house?
So what you end up doing is siphoning off essentially a lot of revenues from the NWC in trying to assist the pensioners, but you will also be assisting “persons who are not pensioners as well.” And so what you would find is that you would be decreasing the NWC’s revenues and then having made a commitment now, you can’t walk it back. You’re going to have to go find the revenues from somewhere else to do that so what I’m saying is, I too agree that we must find a way to help our pensioners because water is a significant portion of their cost of living. We found a way to help everybody, but it is targeted to the people who really need it.
The first thing you want to do whenever you’re going to give these kinds of benefit is to find a way to identify the beneficiary to make sure that the person is justified. And number two, to make sure that the benefit can’t leak, that people who are not pensioners don’t come and benefit from a benefit that should be for the pensioners. It requires deeper thought and deeper thinking. So yes, the two parties want to help the pensioners, but only one political party has demonstrated the skill, the wisdom, the knowledge, the understanding, the ability to deliver these benefits without compromising the wherewithal, the economy, to deliver it.
These past nine years of the Andrew Holness led administration has been delivering a trailer load of benefit without compromising the wherwithal, without compromising the economy. In fact, we have done it in such a way that we have strengthen the economy and that is giving us now resilience and sustainability to continue to bring the benefits to you the good people of Middle Quarters who can now say I will have water running into my yard and into my shower and into my bathroom. Now you will have reliable water supply.
My friends, it was such a pleasure to have been in your company and to be able to share with you my thoughts and to have your feedback. God bless you. Thank you. Enjoy your shower.