Give more than black tanks – Daley
Published:Thursday | March 7, 2024 | 12:07 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
Member of Parliament for St Catherine Eastern Denise Daley has renewed her call for more financial assistance to be given to persons who are gifted with black tanks to help with the transportation costs as well as construction of the concrete bases on which the tanks are placed.
“In respect of giving these black tanks, especially for domestic purposes but also for farming, it makes no sense to give them just the tank. Sometimes construction of the base alone costs more than the tank. Therefore, if you are going to give anything, probably it is better you give them the (cost of the) base because you not really empowering them. If you are going to empower persons, they must be fully empowered, not part way. It shouldn’t be a token. It must mean something,” she told The Gleaner last Thursday. Daley was attending the groundbreaking ceremony for the Tilapia Hatchery Upgrade project at Twickenham Park, St Catherine.
She continued: “I believe is also time that we as the people’s representatives recognise that the persons we are doing these things for are people who really and truly have serious financial needs, and if you just going give them a part of it, it means that in essence, you have given them nothing. You have to bring them from the bottom to the top and then that’s [what] you call empowerment.”
Daley went on to underscore her point by explaining that there were specifications as to how the base on which the tank would sit should be built.
“There is a requirement about how you can make the base. So you can’t just build anything because there is a specific requirement that you have to follow, and that is very costly. It’s not that you can take a short cut as that would have defeated the purpose,” she added.
Meanwhile, in her address to the function, Daley appealed for training and other assistance to be provided to community members outside of the fish farmers who would be directly impacted by the operations of the upgraded tilapia hatchery. These include fish vendors and entrepreneurs.
She also challenged the Government to look beyond the domestic market for fish exports even as she acknowledged that China, which is the largest exporter of fish, does present a serious challenge.
“Do not just look at the domestic market, but we should look at international. I believe that Jamaica, even though we are small, we can be able to do exporting.”