Several communities in Westmoreland have been identified for significant rural electrification works, representing a substantial step towards formal connectivity and improved social services in underserved areas.

Minister of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport Daryl Vaz, conducted a tour of these communities on Friday, September 29, including Barracks Road, Farm Pen, Llandilo, Cooke Street and Prospect.

Vaz and State Minister in the ministry JC Hutchinson, led a team from the ministry, accompanied by representatives from the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) and the Jamaica Public Service (JPS), operating under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) agreement to facilitate the regularisation of electricity in rural and inner-city communities.

“I am living my dream and always getting my blessings” says Kathleen Shaw-Gonzales, a cheerful confident, fisherwoman with a passion for entrepreneurship. Her journey of more than 20 years in the fishing industry has been a rewarding one, marked by her early years as a fish vendor on the beach to eventually owing her boat “Kasalenga” and a retail shop selling ice and other goods to the fishing community in Greenwich Town.

The economic empowerment of women improves their ability to participate equally in the marketplace, gives them greater agency over their time, bodies and lives and increase their economic and social status and voice. As one of the 14 fisher-folks benefitting from an entrepreneurial grant under the JSIF’s Integrated Community Development Project - funded by the Government of Jamaica - Kathleen, also known as “Aunty Pansy” now has the equipment and business skills to grow her business and contribute to the development of her community. 

Under the current REDI-2 project, the JSIF has recently collaborated with the NIC to install a PV Solar System at the Plumwood Pumping Station in Southern Manchester. Over J$37.1 million was invested to supply and install a 79.2 kW grid-tied photovoltaic system, which aims to reduce the JPSCo energy cost of the National Irrigation Commission and allow the agency to continue subsidizing the cost of irrigation water for farmers. The project consists of supplying, installation, and commissioning of a grid-tied 79.2-kilowatt solar photovoltaic (PV) system to serve the Plumwood Pumping Station in New Forrest and will facilitate the NIC’s transition to clean and renewable energy for its operations. The installed PV system will also allow the entity to have an alternative energy source.