Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister, Robert Montague, has announced that the Government will be spending more than $100 million on a major drain-cleaning programme.

Mr. Montague made this disclosure at the launch of 'Local Government Month' at the Terra Nova Hotel on Monday.

"I will be having discussions with the various mayors and chairmen as to the immediate work programme and the immediacy of this programme, because our citizens are out there suffering and the drains are blocked," he said.

"The Prime Minister has told me that before the day is out, I must complete the discussions with the mayors to look at a programme to get our drains clean and to do some minor repairs and to open the parish council roads (which are blocked as result of the heavy rains)," he added.

Designated site

Turning to the fire service, Mr. Montague, who has responsibility for Local Government, said that the Government is committed to providing the service with a permanent training school.

"We have started by releasing $1 million from the Equalisation Fund for them to clean up the (designated) site and do an evaluation, because we are determined that after the training of this current batch of firefighters, the next batch out are to be trained at the facility designated as the firefighting school," he stated.

On other matters, he said he was looking forward to seeing better management of the country's buildings and the physical environment as each local authority would be asked to prepare a 20-year development plan.

"We are looking to see better management of the road network in each parish," he noted further.

In the meantime, Mr. Montague said Dennis Morgan would chair the board of the National Solid Waste and Management Authority (NSWMA), while the new executive director is Joan Gordon-Webley.