Oh my gosh. Dr. to the most honorable Andrew Holes, Prime Minister. The Honorable Matthew Samura, Minister of Water, Environment, and Climate Change. Ambassador Anthony Anderson, Chief Executive Officer, National Reconstructive and Resilience Authority, NAR, Miss Trudy Dean, Senior and Miss Trudy Dean, Senior Advisor, N Mr. Daniel Bess, President Caribbean Development Bank. Mr. Omar Sweeney, Chairman, Rural Water Supply Limited. Miss Anmarie Warner, senior advisor, Office of the President, Caribbean Development Bank. Mr. Alak Alo Jean, senior advisor, Office of the President, sorry, senior advisor to the Prime Minister. Miss Merl Donald's, Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister, other members of the Prime Minister's Delegation, representatives of the Jamaica Tourist Board, members of staff of the Consulate General of Jamaica. Good afternoon and welcome to the Consulate General Office of Jamaica. My name is Angela Rose Howell, officer in charge all of two weeks now. And it is my honor and a pleasure to moderate this afternoon's brief program for the commencement of the loan agreement between the government of Jamaica and the Caribbean Development Bank Rural Water Supply Program. I understand based on minister and what you said at our meeting last week that this proposal has been in the pipeline for some time and the pun is intended and so it is good to be here today during for this at this important juncture in Jamaica's resilience building uh uh process. I would now like to invite Mr. Daniel Best, president of the Caribbean Development Bank to bring brief remarks. Mr. Best. Thank you, Madam Chair. Dr. The most honorable Andrew Holes, Prime Minister of Jamaica, Honorable Matthew Samura, Minister of Water, Environment, and Climate Change, Ambassador Anderson, Mr. Omar Sweeney. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. >> It is indeed a pleasure to join you this afternoon as we mark another milestone in the commencement of the Jamaica Rural Water Supply Project, an an initiative that will make a real and lasting difference in the lives of thousands of Jamaicans. This project holds particular significance for me personally. Its genesis dates back to my time as director of projects at the Caribbean Development Bank when the initial concept and discussions first began to take shape. Having been involved in its early development, I have followed its progress with great interest over the years. It is therefore especially gratifying to see the project reach this stage where we now stand on the cusp of implementation and the delivery of tangible benefits to communities across Jamaica. Access to reliable, safe, and affordable water is fundamental to social well-being, economic opportunity, and sustainable development. Yet many rural communities across the Caribbean continue to experience water shortages, service disruptions, and challenges related to water quality. These difficulties are often compounded by aging infrastructure, limited storage capacity, and inadequate distribution systems disproportionately affecting vulnerable households and communities. The challenges before us are also becoming more complex. Climate change is placing increasing pressure on water resources through longer droughts, changing rainfall patterns, floods, and extreme weather events. As we respond to today's needs, we must also prepare for tomorrow's realities. That is why investments such as this are so critical. The Jamaica Rural Water Supply Project is about far more than pipes, pumps, and reservoirs. It is about improving lives. It is about ensuring that families can turn on a tap with confidence, that schools and health facilities can operate effectively, that farmers and businesses can thrive, and that communities become more resilient in the face of climate related challenges. This project is also a testament to the power of partnerships. The feasibility studies that laid the foundation for this initiative were supported by Ajance Frances the developer whose contribution helped move this project from concept toward implementation. Their support demonstrates the importance of collaboration in transforming good ideas into practical solutions that improve people's lives. At the Caribbean Development Bank, we are proud to support this project through concessional financing from our special development fund. As the Caribbean's only indigenous multilateral development bank, we remain committed to helping our boring member countries invest in critical infrastructure that strengthens resilience, improves livelihoods, and and promotes inclusive and sustainable development. Today's ceremony marks the beginning of an important new phase, but it is also part of a much larger vision, one where every Jamaican has access to safe and dependable water services and where communities are better equipped to withstand the growing impacts of climate change. I want to commend the government of Jamaica, the National Water Commission and technical teams and all stakeholders who have worked tirelessly to bring us to this point. Your commitment, perseverance and partnership have made this milestone possible. And I have to pause here friends and do two very special thank yous. First to Minister Samura, I want to thank you sir for championing this project for taking up the phone and calling me and for us working together to move this. Prime Minister wholness. I am not sure. I'm I'm confident you may not remember. Back in 2023 when I was director of projects, myself and the vice president of operations paid a courtesy visit to you. And after the media had left the room and the the cameras stopped rolling. It was just yourself um myself, Dr. Wayne Henry and our vice president of operations there. And you said to us then you called out this project and said we need to do something to move this. And I just sp my vice president of operations and he reminded me he said it is at that moment that things started moving when the cameras weren't rolling there were no sound bites no optics and you said this is what we got to focus on. I want to thank you prime minister that because of your vision and action we are at this point. And so as we move ahead friends let us remain focused on the ultimate objective delivering meaningful and lasting benefits for the people and communities this project is intended to serve. I thank you all for your kind attention and I wish this project every success. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you very much Mr. Best for your remarks. I will now invite Mr. Omar Sweeney, chairman of the Rural Water Supply Limited to bring remarks. >> Thank you, Councel General. Dr. the most honorable Andrew Holes, Honorable Matthew Samura, Mr. Daniel Best, who just spoke, Council General, other distinguished members of the audience. Good afternoon. Good afternoon to what do we call this? Special Jamaica. Uh it is with a sense of honor that I stand before you this afternoon on the behalf of the board, the directors and the management of the rural water supply limited and I want to start by extending on the behalf of the rural water supply limited our gratitude to the government of Jamaica uh led by Dr. Michael, Andrew Holes, Andrew Michael and uh Minister Samuroda for really putting at the center the vulnerability of the communities and the citizens of rural Jamaica. Today we will commence a partnership that will contribute significantly to six water supply systems across the country. And the Royal Water Supply Limited, a government entity dedicated to developing and improving rural water infrastructure, is uniquely positioned to translate national water priorities that directly benefit communities. and in doing so we address a critical part of Jamaica's sustainability. Against this background, the partnership between the government of Jamaica and the Caribbean Development Bank provides a strategic direction and commitment to improving water security. The CDB provides critical development financing. The government provides a strategic direction and the rural water supply limited will bring the technical expertise and implementation capacity required to achieve successful results. So we can see ladies and gentlemen that this project certainly will accelerate the investment of water infrastructure in Jamaica and also seek to serve the achievement of key priorities. The work itself is targeted to benefit approximately 46,000 Jamaicans. Among them are 8,000 Jamaicans that will gain access to portable w portable water for the very first time. Thousands more will see general improvements to their to their system. But this project is not just about water infrastructure. This project will span the gamut of land acquisition. There will be some land acquisition that's required to execute the project. Uh the infrastructure we know but the project also will bring to bear engineering consultancies and design development uh for supervision certification of the works and of course preparation of tender and bid documents. The project itself will supply vehicles, upgrades to geographic information systems and other IT infrastructure that's required for the project management unit at Royal Water Supply. And it finally will include overall program management uh for the project over the next 5 years. Upon completion, these systems will be handed over to the National Water Commission and the project itself will have in built in the design uh specific budgets for the maintenance and operations of the systems and annual reports on the maintenance systems are required as a part of this agreement. So I see it written here. I'm not I didn't think it was going to be here but as an engineer as an engineer and when Minister Samura asked me to take up the chairmanship uh this project he referenced and said uh we need strong engineers to implement these types of projects. So as an engineer I can assure you that we are committed to executing this project at the highest standards of technical excellence, efficiency and transparency and accountability. So I close in saying once again that we at the Royal Water Supply remain committed and as a part of the government of Jamaica, we look forward to working with the CDB as a critical partner in improving the water sector. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Oh, thank you so much. Thank you so much, Mr. Sweeney. and thank you for your remarks. It is now my honor to invite Oh. Oh, sorry. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Sweeney, for your remarks. And now it is my honor I'm pleased to invite the honorable Matthew Samura, Minister of Water, Environment and Climate Change to make a presentation. Minister, good afternoon. Uh, allow me to acknowledge Dr. the most honorable Andrew Michael Holes, Prime Minister of Jamaica. Mr. Daniel Best, President of the Caribbean Development Bank, Mr. Omar Sweeney, chairman of Rural Water Supply Limited, of course, senior members of the Prime Minister's team from the OPM and indeed NAR. Allow me to also acknowledge and thank members of the consulate who have worked so hard to host us this afternoon. This project commencement, the commencement of a major rural water supply program comes at a critical time in our nation's history. It comes at a time where we have suffered the ravages of a category 4 hurricane, a category 5 hurricane, and a tropical storm over the last four years. It comes against the backdrop that in the last 5 years, Jamaica has suffered four of its five worst droughts in history. It comes at a time where meteorologists tell us that we're entering what is called a super El Nino. On the back of the disasters we would have faced, a lot of the issues we had with our infrastructure were brought to bear. became very evident to the public that the capital replacement ratios related to water infrastructure had simply been inadequate. When one layers the impact of the misadventures of the past and the lack of investment in this sector against what is an obviously changing climate, a situation where we're navigating shifting weather patterns, the absolute urgency and critical nature of our investments should be obvious to all. This particular project being funded by the CDB predominantly is a critical investment in water resilience for approximately 1.5% of our population meaning 42,000 persons will see either improved access and in se and for the 7200 households will see portable water access for the first time. Now, this is a major investment. It is 36 million US or 5.7 billion Jamaican dollars being invested directly into rural communities. And I take the opportunity to advise these rural communities that promises made in the past, as you would have heard from Mr. Best when you reflected on the conversation with Prime Minister, are indeed being fulfilled today. The water schemes will be in the following communities. The A water veil and Jordan Run scheme in St. Mary. The Mason Hall scheme in St. Mary. The Albert town to Ulster Springs scheme in Trrelani. The Union and Balaclava scheme in St. Elizabeth. The Port Morant to Air Castle scheme in St. Thomas. and the green park to bamboo scheme in Santan. Now, many of you would be familiar with these towns and these areas of geography and it may shock you about the quality of water supply in these areas. These are areas of rural Jamaica that are ripe for development. In fact, many of them have grown beyond the capacity of the infrastructure that we have in these areas. Now, this investment gives them not just a chance to survive the changing climate, but a genuine chance to economically thrive and it reflects this government's deep commitment to improving water supply and water resilience for all Jamaicans. That commitment isn't a political one in a sense. It is a commitment we've made as a nation. That commitment is reflected in our vision 2030 and it is reflected in our acceptance of the UN SDGs specifically SDG6 in our recently concluded voluntary review. We would have noted prime minister that 8% of Jamaica moving from 70% now had reliable water access up from 2019. meaning approximately 280,000 persons had met that particular threshold and that threshold also needs to be defined because often times when we speak about water access it's a broad term Jamaica has long since in its water policy not defined water access as nominal access in the way that the UN system generally does meaning you have access to drinking water within 500 ft of of household Jamaica has defined under our government in 2019 that water access is indeed reliable water access. So it's not that the other 22% of the country has zero water otherwise we wouldn't be able to function. However, we have defined that our water ambitions is actually reliable access and that policy distinction needs to be understood. And when you understand the population and how it is dispersed, you understand why it is so expensive and so difficult to deliver uh reliable access because we are a scattered population. 70% of the country lives within 5 kmters of the sea in a circle around the island and then the other 30% is dispersed through the hilly interior. Now that makes water distribution difficult. In many ways, Jamaica developed around its port capacity as a bit of a logistics hub for the British Empire. We didn't develop our capital city around water sources. We didn't say that we would build our major townships predominantly around water sources because at the time many of the little springs as being the land of wood and water could carry the small townships as they were. It wasn't based on the reliability or size of these water sources. So that has created a situation where the water commission operates approximately 800 water systems across the island. that makes up the 78% that we say is reliably served. This project will see that number move in the vicinity of 80%. That is the the significance of this. It will move at least 20,000 of the 38,000 persons within the current utility footprint from nominal access to reliable access. It will move 7,000 persons into the utility footprint who were never in that utility footprint. This is a transformational investment. It is why I wish to personally extend my thanks to Daniel and your team at the CDB. I wish to thank the hardworking team at the Rural Water Supply Limited. wish to also extend my thanks to the Ministry of Finance and and the Attorney General's Chambers who have come together to bring this matter to a close because investments like this reflect the new paradigm. We can't discuss projects like this and make international commitments and take decades to to solve. And it is for that reason as a part of our project steering committee, we'll be engaging the national water commission. We'll be engaging NAR to ensure that our procurement processes and indeed project delivery reflects the speed that is required for these communities to get the service that they deserve. And we'll be engaging the National Works Agency Prime Minister to ensure that the very restoration works of the roadways that will be disturbed are indeed at standard. This project has a number of elements. It is not simply a pipeling project. At the appropriate time, we will present the schematics related to each project. In some cases, there are upgrades of existing water treatment capacity as in the case of the Mason Hall system. Now to understand the scale of these systems and the scale of this investment and why this is such a big deal and why we've asked the prime minister to join us for this signature. For those of you who know the geography, you can contemplate that the Mason Hall scheme will see an upgrade of cross country lines from White River all the way to Port Maria. So it is a large project. It will see the upgrade of transmission mains, community lines, an extension of the utility footprint. There will be three large community tanks that will that will hold approximately 800,000 gallons of of water across the three tanks. Several lift stations. These are largecale rural water projects. The shift that we also are now making prime minister is that within our water policy we have engaged the team at the World Bank to work with us on the policy shift to deal with the issue of social water because as we know in having learned from both hurricane burial and hurricane Melissa last mile is always the most expensive and as we go above 80% and we get into the nooks and cranny of the countryside, it is going to get more expensive to serve fewer people. So, we have to deal with the issue from a policy perspective in terms of how we're going to account for our smaller water systems, how we're going to finance them and then apply the appropriate project uh best practices to actually get this done. But what today should show citizens is that certainly when your government makes a commitment, you can take it to the bank. When your government makes a commitment, even if it takes a little while longer than we would like, it will be delivered. And I ask the citizens of these communities that have been patient, give us a little more time, but very soon we will be on the ground in your communities with heavy equipment, with construction, delivering water projects that in some cases you have waited on for the entire length of time you've been alive. But this is a commitment made and a commitment kept. And I wish to thank the prime minister for his supporting us closing this critical project that will indeed deliver better water supply for over 42,000 Jamaicans across six growing rural towns. I thank you. [applause] Thank you very much minister for um your remarks in relation to this important transformational project. It is now my honor to invite Prime Minister Dr. the most honorable Andrew Holes to deliver the keynote address. Prime Minister, [applause] >> thank you very much. Um, Madame Director of Proceedings, uh, allow me to acknowledge the hardworking Minister of Water, Environment, and Climate Change. Uh, Minister [applause] Matthew Samura. uh I held the portfolio for a little while [laughter] and um he the minister continues to refer to me on matters and I said to him a while ago go as deep as you can in these matters you don't need me anymore you have taken the portfolio fully and I'm very pleased that um the passion that he displays in the subject area and I was just listening to him and saying that Um uh he's not only speaking now as a minister but he's sounding like a subject expert which is good. Don't take all these compliments for anything else. [laughter] Uh, I will say my friend Daniel uh the president of the Caribbean Development Bank, a very important institution for Jamaica. Uh, Omar, chairman of the Rural Water Supply Limited. You know, I'm not used to Omar in these roles. You see, I only know him as the chief executive officer of JF, but he plays a critical role there, and I'm certain he's playing a very instrumental role with rural water supply. Uh, specially invited guests, stakeholders, uh, members of the diaspora and Jamaicans listening here in, uh, Miami and, uh, in Jamaica. I mean there might be a question why are we signing this um in in in Miami and not in Jamaica. Well, the simple reason that I am here I'm here for an infrastructure conference no less and I had um a full day yesterday addressing u potential investors, our development partners and other persons interested in infrastructure in in Jamaica and in particular um in the water sector. So it's an opportune time for us to take advantage of the presence of the CDB here myself minister uh and all the other representatives. So consider it to be efficient use of time since we are all uh logistically located for this particular event. Now, uh, this event comes at a particularly significant moment in Jamaica. Our country is experiencing prolonged drought and this is due to the effects of El Nino. Rainfall has been far below average over the past few months. Water sources are under increased pressure and communities in several parts of Jamaica are experiencing water restrictions. Not to mention the number of uh fires, bush fires, uh that are just popping up all over Jamaica. Now what we're doing here will not solve the climate change issues which drive the El Nino phenomenon. It is not going to immediately solve all of Jamaica's water shortage problems. But what we're doing here is making steady progress in the provision of utility grade water supply to Jamaica. The best estimates as Minister Sabura would have pointed out of the utility coverage of Jamaica would be somewhere between 75 and 80% of Jamaica has utility grade coverage for water. And when I say utility grade, just for common understanding, uh water that is piped from a centrally managed source um and that that you pay for a very uh important point. It has a high level of reliability and endurance and that's the the definition of the utility supply. Uh, so the NWC says that they have about 400,000 plus accounts which serve just over 2 million Jamaicans. But that doesn't mean that 1 million Jamaicans are without water. Uh there are other water supply systems which are not considered utility grade and those are run by municipalities. Some are privately run uh and some are um operated very few if any by now by the rural water supply limited. Now the idea is to extend the utility footprint of water supply in Jamaica. So when we do these projects in the communities that were named by Minister Samura and if I can just repeat those these would be six water supply schemes across five parishes. The Agualta Veil Jordan Run and Mason Hall in St. Mary the Albert town Olsa Spring system in Trilani Union Balaclava in St. Elizabeth Port Morant Air Castle in St. Thomas and Green Park Bamboo in St. Anne. When these projects are completed, it will impact approximately 45,487 Jamaicans. I don't know how they calculate this, but this is [laughter] I would just round it out. Approximately 45,000 Jamaicans will will benefit. And yet best estimate is that around 7,200 persons will gain access to portable water, piped water to their homes that they can drink um for the first time, while the remaining 38,000 will just benefit from a more reliable supply, a more enduring supply. In other words, they will benefit from having utility grade supply. So in effect, what this project will do is increase the utility footprint of the NWC. Why? Because after the government has made this $ 38 million investment, and I'm going to come back to that, uh it will then be added, it will be handed over to the NWC for the NWC to operate it as a utility. So this means two things. The first thing is that it has to be built such that the NWC can operate it. The NWC is not designed to operate microsystems and um systems that don't meet a certain standard. Uh uh otherwise it just becomes a drag on the NWC's resources. So uh the engineering designs that will go into these systems will mean that they will be capable of being operated at NWC's utility standards. Right? That's critical. The second thing to understand about this investment is that it is not necessarily an economic investment. And I I want that point to be understood not in the peorative but in the positive way. Not all investments that governments make are for economic reasons. Governments make investments sometimes for social reasons. If you were to map the economic activity along the water man and the the pipeline routes and all the infrastructure that has to be put in and you calculate the payment for water at the current rate, the payback would would have to be in you know maybe 50 years which is longer than the payback of the debt. So that means the government has to be uh bearing that cost of the repayment. So in effect this decision is not about the economics. This decision recognizes that water is life and that even if it doesn't make uh a strong economic case for the investment, it makes a far more compelling social case for the investment. So, and that is what the government is doing. But it still cannot be free water and that is why it will go to the NWC to become part of the utility footprint and people will have to connect to to the facility and pay their water rates. So I believe I at this point should say a few things about social water. um social water is built into the rate structure of the NWC. Um there is a certain level of consumption for which there is what is called a social rate. After you pass that certain level of consumption then you you go up to the residential rate. The NWC also has a fixed rate regime for some communities and we have negotiated that from time to time with communities where um they don't have uh meters or their service cannot be metered for whatever purpose or reason. So we we do have some arrangements for that. And then we the NWC provides water through trucking and we recently invested in I believe it is 12 water 12 brand new water trucks to be able to respond and provide water for which the NWC does not charge when it provides this water. That's part of our social water response. And we are we have um a plan to expand the number of trucks. Minister Sam, I believe you're going to double from 12 >> good. Right. So that's the idea because that's how you get water to communities that just don't have the utility service or any service at all. It's it is through trucking and that is social water that is free. But of course there is still a large number of households who tap into the NWC's water supply and it is not needed. Uh we use the euphemistic term the um illegal abstraction of water from the system. You can call it other things. Uh but an even more euphemistic term is nonrevenue water. So meaning the the well it's means what it says the NWC makes no revenue from that water that it supplies. This is something that we have to address and the idea is not to deprive persons of water. The idea is to properly account for all the water that we supply so that we can make a conscious instrumental decision about who we're going to give water for free and who is charged for water. Right now, as it is, the customer who is paying their water bill is probably paying more than they should because they have to subsidize persons who can pay and don't pay, who should pay and don't pay. And persons who shouldn't pay are getting but are using much more than they need because they don't have to conserve. So if you look at many of the illegal connections, you will see that there is increasing wastage of water. They're not connected properly. There are leaks. Water is being wasted. So all of these are things that we we have to address. And so that my statements are not misconstrued or misrepresented, I want to be clear that what what the government wants to do is to ensure that there is a transparent system of social water for households and communities who cannot afford it to get legitimate access to water. so that we can manage much better our total water supply and I know there are those who will be quick to want to say the government wants to take away social water from the population that's absolutely not the case what we want to do is to be able to manage our water resources better and while I have the minister here and I am no longer the minister I will make the point that the NWC needs to manage its water resources and its assets in a much better way. Uh including the swift repair of broken manes and please repair the roads immediately after you have dug them up. Right, Minister? >> Yes sir. >> Very important. So we have made significant progress with um the water sector in Jamaica. Uh this will probably move the dial for utility coverage by what was your estimate? About 5%. >> One and a half% of population. So probably >> precisely. So we'll we'll we'll we're edging there to get to that full utility coverage. But I I wanted to to make another point. Um the Rural Water Supply Limited was established in 1983 to construct a pipeline to bring water from St. Thomas into Kingston. uh that that pipeline now still serves the Mona Dam. Uh that's what literally fills the Mona Dam right now. It did so well in taking on that massive project that it has been given other huge water projects to develop. It is not a water company even though that's what the name suggests. It is an engineering company that specializes in developing water supply systems. We have targeted its resources to building out the water infrastructure for rural communities and that is where it has been focused and it has done an amazing job. Uh the rural water supply limited is an asset to Jamaica with incredible engineers and a reservoir of knowledge on water systems and we are we're as a country I think you know we we're are blessed to have that incredible capability and in fact the rural water supply limited is involved in almost all of the new buildouts that are going on whether it is direct managing or providing engineering services and the rural water supply company limited will be uh the the managers, developers and the engineers on all the water supply projects that we have mentioned. As good as they are, they still have to be subjected to the overall public bureaucracy of approvals and permittings and all the other things that they have to do, the environmental studies and all the other issues, the land acquisition issues that and so though they are ex excellent engineers, uh they are still going to be slowed by public administration. And so many of these projects will probably fall under the opaces of NAR because they form part of the resilience framework. Uh and so we will be using the NAR projects to ensure the the NARO um opices to ensure that these projects are expedited because you know the fact is that while we are here making these lovely speeches and celebrating 38 million US dollars of investment in rural water where 45,000 persons will get water. This is of no moment until you turn your tap and you get water. That's the that's the the reality. Uh there is nobody calling the radio station complaining that they have water. And and and in fact the only people who complain are those who don't have water. So we have to be moving very quickly in getting it done. Too often the focus is on the process of getting it done. We've signed the loan. The engineers have done their reports and we we celebrate those milestones, but the milestone that people really want to see is the water when they turn that tap and and so we need to just be moving very quickly. So these projects as part of our resilience uh mandate will be uh benefited by NAR and I I think that um the public would generally agree that these projects should fall under the NAR ambit. But let me in closing say this. Um, all the studies show that Jamaica has enough water to supply its population. There's there's no question about that. The problem is one where populations are located relative to the sources. And when we were developing as a country um from our colonial history coming right up spatial and geographic planning was not foremost. We, as you pointed out correctly, our towns were located close to our ports and our roads uh developed close to shore to get to ports uh followed rivers and as a result of that communities developed um around them. And so the challenge of having for example good water supply um those considerations came after. Today we have to build out the water infrastructure to take water from where it is to where the populations have settled. But there is also another problem. People have settled in areas where it is almost impossible well let me not say it that way. They have settled in areas where it is uneconomical to bring water. Now, you can't go and explain that to a household that has to be carrying water on their heads in the 21st century. When they turn on their TV, everybody has water in their home and they don't. But governments have to start to think very seriously about our spatial planning. How communities are allowed to just evolve over time without any thought as to how we going to get the water to you? How we going to deal with your sewage? How is the garbage truck going to make it up that steep hill around that deep curve where there's nowhere to put a garbage can? It's impossible to put a sewer main there. And that's some of the challenges that um the government faces. So in the grand scheme of things, however, uh we are committed to providing all Jamaica with water. We are edging closer to having universal utility supply of water in Jamaica. Uh every year we are making these kinds of investments. I want to make the point they are they may not be considered economical investments but they are important social investment which reinforces our commitment to bring water to everyone. However, it should be noted that the government cannot continue to carry water to areas where it does not make sense. And so in terms of our spatial planning, our um national settlement policy, uh we will now have to take that into consideration in a far more stringent way than before. We we must now seek to consolidate uh the areas that are settled and prevent the unplanned settlement of other areas where it is going to be uh uneconomical and in some cases virtually impossible to bring utilities to them. And we're seeing communities just pop up every day. No planning, no approvals, no one knows of them. But then everybody's holding up their hands. We have no water. We have no water. Uh some, you know, the government didn't think about us. Well, you know, that cannot continue. uh and our plan, Minister Samura, uh is to ensure that our spatial development is strategic, considers climate change and other environmental issues, but gives economic synergy that whatever we do, wherever we decide to build that when we make that connectivity between roads, our water system, our sewer, our electricity grid. All of that leads to more efficient, more productive economic output. And that's the purpose of this investment. We are making, as I repeat, a social investment to create an expanded utility footprint which will improve the efficiency of our society. But we also consider the orderly settlement of the society. So with those words, I welcome uh this new development and um I I should also say that it is a loan. Government has to to pay for it. Um somehow that might not have gotten into the the public domain. It is a loan. We will pay for it. But it is part of the fiscal envelope. So this loan uh is not going to create a fiscal risk for the government. In other words, it is part of what we already planned to borrow to be able to do the infrastructure. And the reason why we have taken this loan from the Caribbean Development Bank is precisely because a it has a development mandate and the Caribbean Development Bank is providing technical support in addition to the loan funds uh which will help to offset the social cost of this project. So with those words and explanations, thank you very much. [applause] Thank you very much Prime Minister for your most instructive address. We will now move to the signing of the commencement of loan agreement between the government of Jamaica and the Caribbean Development Bank for the rural water supply program. We'll just make we'll make some changes. CD doesn't need to be anything else. [laughter] in the normal sense of the world. Sorry. Very [applause] good. As far as everything