Cops grow weary battling constant sewage flooding station

Superintendent Bobette Morgan-Simpson, head of the St Mary Police Division, has voiced concern over an ongoing sewage inundation problem affecting the Port Maria Police Station.

In an interview with The Gleaner on Saturday, Morgan said that just days ago, the station experienced its latest episode of flooding.

She said that on some occasions, the murky water has no route of escape after rushing through the building and the offices of the Criminal Investigations Branch, the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse, the Community Safety and Security Branch and offices for the traffic police, among others.

As the sewage rises, officers are forced to relocate to the top floor of the two-storey building, utilising a multipurpose room as their operating base until the offices are cleaned and fumigated.

“[The sewage] is drawn regularly, ... but the thing is, we don’t see any sign [when it is going to overflow], so you don’t know when it’s going to happen. That’s the problem,” Morgan-Simpson said.

The divisional commander told The Gleaner that this has been a recurring issue, with the only solution being “for the station to be moved”, she said, noting that being so close to the sea, the tide was triggering the overflow of the raw sewage.

“I have been tasked to find somewhere suitable for us to move to, ... but there’s really none here in St Mary because it’s not as if we have some building that we don’t use somewhere ... to say, let us identify this building for us to get [it],” she said, highlighting the struggle in finding a temporary location which can be rented and retrofitted to suit the police’s operations.

Last November, National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang disclosed that a 30-acre plot of land located just below lands occupied by the St Mary Infirmary and the health centre in Port Maria had been earmarked for major development, including the construction of a new state-of-the-art police station.

He said that funding was in place to build the police station, which he acknowledge needed to be treated as a priority, given the myriad challenges the existing station location oftentimes faced, especially during periods of heavy rainfall.

“The situation, as it is now, it is a terrible situation but everybody hands tied,” Morgan-Simpson said despondently.

She said the crisis has had a significant impact on the operations, with some sections grinding to a halt until the issue is remedied whenever there is flooding.

She added, however, that the cops would still report for duty, but would not enter the building.

“I have to lift my hat to my staff because it is not easy to leave your home – if you’re keeping a good house, that is – to come into a situation where the stench is not good, the place wet up, you see water but you know that it is not just water, it is sewage; and you still have to operate in the conditions,” she said, noting that the conditions often affect the officers’ morale.

asha.wilks@gleanerjm.com