Holness urges calm as Mavis Bank landslide cleared
Published:Thursday | April 28, 2022 | 12:10 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
Member of Parliament Juliet Holness sought to cool raging tempers in Violet Bank Wednesday, urging residents to exercise patience as they demanded quick response from the operators of heavy equipment to clear a landslide that marooned the community overnight.
Residents also deplored price-gouging by taxi operators, some of whom doubled fares for schoolchildren and other commuters as they headed to classes and work.
The landslide caused several sixth-graders sitting a Primary Exit Profile exam, the Curriculum-based Test, to arrive late for school.
While waiting on the arrival of the authorities, residents determined to reconnect with the capital city armed themselves with shovels and pickaxes and dug a path near the edge of the road, creating a makeshift ramp for vehicular traffic.
Violet Bank is in the Greater Mavis Bank area of St Andrew East Rural, a vast, hilly constituency often affected by rockslide and flooding disasters.
Holness said that she had negotiated with the National Works Agency to position backhoes or trackers at key geographic points to respond quickly to slippages.
She cautioned, however, that the state agency had to be strategic in deploying equipment and manpower in a cost-effective manner.
“It is not at all practical, and it is not going to happen that every time we have a partial landslide, that they will come up [immediately] to clear it,” she said.
“It is dangerous for the people clearing the landslide. It is dangerous for the persons who want to pass those landslides because if it continues to rain, I can literally come and look at some of them and know they’re going to come down again, and I can call an engineer from NWA and they will look at it and say, ‘That is coming down again’.”
Nicole, a resident, urged the lawmaker to press harder for road repairs as they felt disconnected from civilisation whenever they were left stranded.
“The fact that our livelihoods are being affected. Remember, if we need the hospital, we have to go that way. If we need the supermarket, we have to go that way. Everything we need! Our jobs, we have to go that way! So what do we do?” she said to Holness.
The St Andrew East Rural MP expressed disappointment at claims of price-gouging, saying that her constituency office had organised subventions for such eventualities.
Stephen Shaw, communication and customer services manager of the NWA, confirmed that the Violet Bank road was reopened around 11 a.m. Wednesday.
“We will watch it. There’s nothing more we can do at this time. It’s just the embankment above the road came down blocking it, and we have removed it … . For now, we will just watch it,” Shaw said.