Bath Botanical Gardens in St. Thomas will be rehabilitated over a five-month period at a cost of $29.5 million.

The Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), along with the Ministries of Tourism, and Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, signed a contract with SM Quality Construction for the undertaking on Thursday (February 5), at JSIF’s Richmond Avenue offices in Kingston.

The project will be implemented under the second Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI II), which is designed to enhance and promote sustainable heritage tourism experiences.

The passage of Hurricane Melissa last October has put Jamaica’s infrastructure resilience, especially in the built environment, front and centre. Jamaica, as a small island developing state (SIDS), faces unique challenges in implementing sustainable building practices. Poverty, job scarcity, high cost of living, and low growth highlight the need for tailored solutions to guide sustainable development efforts.

More than 50 per cent of the houses in Catherine Hall and Westgreen, St James, have been rewired for electricity connection that was badly damaged by flood waters associated with last October’s passage of Hurricane Melissa.

“Happy to say that visiting Catherine Hall, 600 out of 800 houses have been rewired and the other 200, we are working with those households who have specific issues why they are not able to sign up as yet for the connection,” Minister of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport Daryl Vaz said following a tour of the affected communities on Thursday.

The passage of Hurricane Melissa has resulted in significant displacement and damage to households islandwide. Consequently, thousands of households that required house wiring to become regularized were affected. Additionally, thousands of households that have electricity now require rewiring and the Government Electrical Regulator (GER) certification process to be safely connected to the grid. Through the provision of JM$1 billion for the implementation of the National Energy Poverty Reduction Project, the Government of Jamaica, through the Ministry of Energy Transport & Telecommunications will be supporting households in the most affected parishes.

Jamaica is an iconic beach destination – but there’s so much more to the island than flop-and-drop tourism. With a vision of spreading tourism outside of key hotspots and ensuring that Jamaicans felt connected to their tourism industry, four key partners came together to develop a strategy that would strengthen community-based tourism across Jamaica and empower small tourism businesses. Larisa McBean, Tourism Specialist at the Jamaica Social Investment Fund, took us behind-the-scenes of this award-winning campaign – including how they structured the partnership to ensure success, what they learned throughout the process, and how it’s providing a foundation for recovery after Hurricane Melissa.