Prime Minister Holness Speaking at the Shettlewood Pipeline Project Groundbreaking Ceremony
Remarks
By
The Most Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP, DLP
Prime Minister of Jamaica
At the
Shettlewood Pipeline Project
On
October 16, 2024
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Today we toured the Montego Bay Perimeter Road Project and now we are in the constituency of Southern St James looking at works for a major water project. I’m so happy for the people of Mount Carey, Anchovy, Roehampton- I gather 12 communities will benefit.
Now, in as much as I am happy for the more than 12 communities that will benefit from this 600 million dollar project, I am also very cognizant of the fact that there are many other communities, even in Southern St James that are without water. I want to use this opportunity to say to those persons who are eagerly awaiting a project like this for their community so that they too can have potable water, water to their home not just to their gate but in their bathrooms and in their kitchens inside their homes, to say to you, don’t lose faith.
I know that there are many communities that have no water for the last 30, 40, 50 years. Even in this constituency in 2020, we turned on water supply for communities that didn’t have water for 30 years. It is now at this point in time in our history, having made progress on our economy, that we can have JSIF, (Jamaica Social Investment Fund), which previously when funding these projects, would say that I want to thank the government of such and such a country to help us to bring water to our rural communities. If you notice what we heard from the head of JSIF, Mr. Sweeney, is this project is fully funded by the government of Jamaica; that is profound.
Now, to you when you turn on the tap, it doesn’t matter if the funding came from the UK Special Fund, or the European Union Special Fund, or Jamaica, you’re just happy you get the water. Yes, that is the case but Jamaica can’t exist forever hoping to get grants and aid from other countries to satisfy the demands that we have here. What has changed in Jamaica is that you have a government that has run the economy very well to the point where we can start to use our own resources to address the issues that face you. So it’s Jamaican money that is putting water in your pipe, and for that, that water should taste even better.
Likewise, it is Jamaican money that is totally financing the massive Montego Bay Perimeter Road Project; all Jamaican money. So my fellow citizens, the people whom I have the privilege to serve as your prime minister, I see every demonstration, I hear every complaint but I want you to bear in mind that it is not now that you have been demonstrating and complaining for water, it has been for the last 30/ 40 years. What has changed is that almost every week you are seeing me or one of my ministers breaking ground, turning on the tap, announcing a new project and we are able to do this from the budget of the country based upon the economic performance.
So I’m very pleased and very happy to be here in South St James in the Anchovy area for the people who will benefit from having this massive, this major water project. We’re very happy for them, but we also want to give hope to the thousands of other Jamaicans who are understandably frustrated, who are expecting a better standard of living. Thirty years ago, maybe it was alright to have the water come and stop at your gate and you go and catch it and carry it in. Nowadays, everybody wants better. People want to build their houses and the water is inside their houses; that is prosperity and that is what the government is committed to doing but it’s not a snap of the finger. It is a process. Take heart, we are in that process now and we will bring water to you.