Ja’s emergency communication system being upgraded

As Jamaica's Improvement of Emergency Communication System Project approaches its delivery date, stakeholders are anticipating a significant leap forward in the country's disaster preparedness and response capabilities.

The project's implementation is being spearheaded by the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), and co-financed by the Government of Jamaica (GOJ) and Japan International Cooperation Agency. It aims to revolutionise the communication infrastructure to better tackle emergencies.

La-Jean Richards, the project manager from ODPEM, highlighted the project's objectives and progress.

"We are pretty much at the close of the installation phase, where we have installed radio equipment in critical GOJ entities," said Richards.

"The objective of the project is to create that singular platform for disaster emergency communication. Currently, we don't have a stable communication system to communicate during a disaster. So we'll have several entities benefiting from this system, several government entities," she said.

Key agencies such as fire, health, and local authorities will have access to the communication units, facilitating efficient coordination during emergencies.

"We would have installed radio equipment in some of the critical government vehicles, ambulances, fire trucks, and so on, in order to create that communication for the mobile infrastructure," Richards elaborated.

"We are close to the handover phase and the commissioning of the system, so we are looking forward to the completion of the project this calendar year."

Richards emphasised the importance of such infrastructure in enhancing disaster response capabilities, especially when conventional communication systems might fail.

"In an emergency, the traditional or the conventional communication system, like cell phones, or even the Internet, can and will sometimes fail, so we need this infrastructure to foster and have a rapid or quick response," Richards stated.