Bamboo menace
Bridges in Hanover blocked, Lucea under threat of flooding
Published:Monday | August 1, 2022 | 12:06 AMBryan Miller/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
THE RESIDENTS of Lucea, Hanover, are bracing for more flooding as the course of the Riley River under the Riley Bridge, at the eastern entrance to that town, is completely blocked once again by bamboo coming from upstream.
The Gleaner has also learnt that the section of the Kew River under the old Kew Bridge, a few kilometres further east of the Riley Bridge, is also blocked with bamboo, a situation which poses a potential flooding problem for the community of Brissett, east of Lucea.
Passage of the Riley River under the Riley Bridge was last blocked in May 2022, and was left in that condition for weeks until a heavy shower of rain caused the river to overflow its banks and flooded the town of Lucea. Residents within the town and visitors to the area were furious at the time, as they blamed the National Works Agency (NWA), the agency responsible for clearing the blocked river channel, for their tardiness in tackling the problem.
“It is all because of the negligence of the National Works Agency,” Mayor of Lucea and Chairman of the Hanover Municipal Corporation Sheridan Samuels, said at that time.
It was pointed out to The Gleaner that in May, the NWA was notified of the blocked waterway weeks before the flooding, and their lack of immediate action caused it to be further clogged as it was not cleared until after the flooding of the town.
Parish Manager of the Hanover Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, Kenisha Stennett-Dunbar, told The Gleaner that just like in May, she has already notified the local NWA office in Lucea of the blocked waterway and its potential dangers.
“They were made aware [of both blockages], and they said that they were going to sort it out as soon as possible,” she stated, adding that she did what was in her remit and cannot speed up the NWA’s time frame for action.
Check on it
When contacted by The Gleaner, councillor for the Lucea Division in the HMC, Easton Edwards, said he was not aware of the blockage but will be checking on the situation post-haste.
“I will check on it, and if it is blocked I will deal with the agency that is responsible for dealing with that. And because of what transpired with the fishermen on the last occasion, I am going to make certain that the bamboos do not escape into the ocean, to re-enact what happened a couple of months ago,” he stated.
Edwards’ mention of “what happened a couple months ago”, regarding the fishermen, is in reference to when the NWA attempted to clear the blockage under the Riley Bridge after the flooding in May, when tons of bamboo were released from the blockage downstream and ended up in the Lucea Harbour. They were carried by currents to blockade the shoreline of the town, restricting the fishermen who use those beaches to dock their vessels.
After being blocked in for days and prevented from going fishing, the fisherfolk of that town, out of desperation, had to resort to setting fire to the bamboo that were blocking in their boats. This in turn created a smoke nuisance in Lucea, and consequently, the Jamaica Fire Brigade’s Lucea division had to be called in to put out the fire.
“The situation is from one environmental problem to the other, and it’s all because of the lackadaisical attitude of the NWA,” one resident of the town told The Gleaner then.
When contacted about the present situation of the blockage, NWA’s regional community relations officer, Janel Ricketts, expressed awareness of the situation the two bridges.
“The [NWA] team would be aware of it. I would have to speak with them for an update. As soon as we get approval we will go ahead with the clearing,” she told The Gleaner.