Jamaica shelter and urban services policy program

The program will expand: (1) public sector delivery, on a basis affordable by the poor, of water, sewer service, land, and shelter; and (2) the private sector"s role in providing low-cost shelter. Targets for the HG will be adjusted each year. The following description describes first year operations. The National Water Commission (NWC) will install new water connections for at least 1,200 shelter units among low-income populations. This constitutes an increase of at least 20% in the number of new connections for the poor. For individual water connections under acceptable cost-recovery schemes, NWC will formalize and disseminate its policy relaxing the required standard of acceptable documentation of land ownership. NWC will also approve communal water system pilot projects - to include a cost-recovery plan - in select communities currently without water service. In addition, NWC will: (1) prepare a plan for financing individual hook-ups to existing sewage collection systems on a cost-recovery basis; (2) establish a cost-recovery policy for off-site water costs at serviced sites locations; and (3) implement in at least two major urban areas a program to detect and repair leaks in the public water system distribution network, as well as a pilot project to lease equipment to the private sector to carry out leak detection efforts. The Ministry of Construction (Housing) - MOC(H) - will complete at least 1,500 serviced sites and settlement upgrading units, as compared with the 600 units averaged during 1983-1986. MOC(H) will also begin developing a land inventory system, undergo a management audit of its institutional capacity and prepare an agenda for TA and other support needs, and work with National Housing Trust (NHT) to examine the magnitude and distribution by income group of the subsidies implicit in their present mortgage assistance programs. Finally, a Sector Coordinating Committee - to include representatives of the NWC, the MOC(H), the NHT, and other institutions - will be formed. The Committee and will prepare, in consultation with community groups, a plan to strengthen the involvement of community-based and non-governmental organizations in informal shelter construction and settlement upgrading, as well as for strengthening community outreach by the NWC, MOC/(H), and other public agencies. MOC(H) will identify private firms to produce finished turnkey housing, obtain from these firms an indication of their interest in and conditions for turnkey work, and prepare a report on the feasibility of using the private sector to develop serviced sites. TA will be provided under project 5320149 to help monitor sectoral developments, carry out the pilot projects and studies, and strengthen institutional implementation capacity.