PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release

February 21, 2002

NEPA TO OPEN PORTLAND OFFICE

The National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) opened its Portland Office on Thursday, February 28 at 5 Smatt Road in Port Antonio.

“This office will allow us to have a direct point of contact with our public in this part of the island,” said NEPA’s Director of Compliance and Regional Services, Basil Forsythe.  “ Our customers and partners will have access to us, not just for lodging complaints for enforcement, but also to access information about our services and pick up approval related forms. Our officers will also be able to deal with questions about their applications to some extent and distribute Public Educational material.”

The Portland office is a part of the regionalisation process for NEPA, whose vision is for more face-to face contact with customers. Officers from the Enforcement and Sustainable Watersheds Branches will man it initially, with visits from other technical officers as needed.

“ We are committed to making our application processing system transparent and customer friendly, so that it is easy to do business with NEPA”, explains NEPA CEO Franklin McDonald.

The Portland Office is being facilitated by the Coastal Water Quality Improvement Project (CWIP), one of NEPA’s externally funded projects--- financed by the U.S. Government through its Agency for International Development (USAID)--- which launched its programmes in the parish and opened its office there on that same day.   CWIP is supporting four activities in Portland. These include Environmental Education and a Solid Waste Management Project in Central Port Antonio, both in collaboration with the Portland Environment Protection Association (PEPA). CWIP is also facilitating a Water Quality Monitoring Project being conducted by the College of Agriculture, Science and Education (CASE) and the development of a Waste Water Advisory Monitoring Committee.

Contact Rosemarie Chung – 754-7575/906-1393-4