Section of Eastern Westmoreland to get power by end of this week – Vaz

Energy Minister Daryl Vaz

By Nakinskie Robinson 

Energy Minister Daryl Vaz says a section of Eastern Westmoreland will be lit by the end of this week. 

Mr. Vaz gave the update during Wednesday morning’s post-Cabinet press briefing where he addressed concerns about the electrification of Eastern Westmoreland. 

“I have confirmed with the JPS (Jamaica Public Service) that by the end of this week, Darliston will have light, and restoration will continue in earnest between now and the end of January. So again, Eastern Westmoreland will start to get light,” he announced. 

At Tuesday’s sitting of the House of Representatives, Member of Parliament for Westmoreland Eastern, Dr. Dayton Campbell challenged restoration efforts, arguing that his constituency, where the hurricane made landfall, remains without electricity through JPS, despite reported restoration across the parish. 

This was in response to Minister Vaz’s presentation on restoration efforts across Westmoreland. 

The constituency is home to roughly 10,000 of the 17,000 JPS customers without electricity in the parish. 

On Wednesday, Mr. Vaz contended that he did not say Eastern Westmoreland in particular has been powered. 

“At no time in my presentation yesterday did I mention Eastern Westmoreland having light. I gave the statistics on the parish of Westmoreland, and I’m going to repeat it again. Westmoreland has 34,603 customers. The customers that are out at this time is 17,096; approximately 49 per cent of the customers in Westmoreland continue to be out of power. But let it not be lost that in December, the middle of December when I spoke, Westmoreland was at 18 per cent,” he noted.

The Energy Minister also conceded that erroneous information was presented in Parliament Tuesday. 

Mr. Vaz said 40 miles of lines were rebuilt with over 1,000 poles from Ferris Cross, Westmoreland to Hodges in St. Elizabeth to restore some 2,000 customers.

However, this was disputed by Dr. Campbell on Tuesday as he argued that this had not happened as suggested by the minister.

Minister Vaz on Wednesday admitted that the information from JPS was erroneous – as so far, only 100 poles have been laid as part of the rebuilding exercise.