KSAMC to clean over 100 drains
Published:Thursday | June 11, 2020 | 12:21 AMPaul Clarke/Gleaner Writer
More than 100 drains are scheduled for clearing under the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation’s (KSAMC) comprehensive drain-cleaning programme, which is part of the municipality’s hurricane-preparedness activities.
Detailing the programme, Kingston Mayor Delroy Williams said that the exercise would be undertaken in phases, targeting 51 critical coastal drains in communities across 13 divisions.
Thereafter, a further 23 non-coastal drains will be cleaned in communities across 10 divisions.
“In all, about 74 critical drains will be cleaned, both coastal and non-coastal, over the next few weeks, and that is part of our preparation for the hurricane season,” Williams said.
He pointed out that a number of regular drains would be cleaned at the end of the programme.
“So, basically, at the end of it, we would have had a comprehensive cleaning of drains amounting to easily over 100 drains being cleaned across the municipality in preparation for the hurricane season,” he added.
In addition, the National Works Agency (NWA) said it would cost $2 million to remove the build-up of debris from drains in the vicinity of Chesterfield Drive. Heavy rains swept mounds of garbage along the road and into a gully.
DELAYING THE INEVITABLE
NWA CEO E.G. Hunter said, however, that ploughing funds into a major clean-up would not eliminate the peril but only delay the inevitable.
“Until such time, there is another accumulation of the junk,” Hunter said.
“The thing about Chesterfield Drive itself is that it sits in what is a natural flood plain and is susceptible to flooding,” he told The Gleaner yesterday.
Hunter said that YouTube videos of flooded roadways at the entrance to the Seaview Gardens community should be keenly studied. The NWA CEO has theorised that the drain along Pacific Boulevard was blocked because of a build-up of debris.
Chesterfield Drive was developed to allow motorists to bypass the then-under-construction flyover at Portia Simpson Miller Square.
Hunter said there was talk of closing Chesterfield Drive when the flyover was completed but noted that it was providing a useful traffic-management alternative.
“What we will do from here is to keep it under surveillance, and once we detect any possibility of flooding, it will be closed,” Hunter stated.
“We have no intention at this time to build the kind of drainage system that will eliminate periodic flooding because it’s of tremendous expenditure and is not value for money at this stage.”