Portmore mayor raps NWA for last-minute drain cleaning
Published:Tuesday | July 2, 2024 | 9:31 AMRuddy Mathison/Gleaner Writer
Portmore Mayor Leon Thomas has expressed outrage at the National Works Agency (NWA) for neglecting the municipality’s calls to clean critical drains ahead of the hurricane season.
Thomas, who toured several areas where drains are located in Portmore, St Catherine, on Monday, highlighted the municipality’s sustained efforts in cleaning and maintaining at least eight secondary drains under its jurisdiction. However, he criticised the NWA for its lack of action on the essential drains the agency is responsible for.
Standing at the drain at the lower end of West Henderson Boulevard in Greater Portmore, a site under the NWA’s responsibility, Thomas voiced his frustration on Monday.
“This is a critical drain and here we are standing and there has been no communication from the NWA as to whether this drain will be cleaned,” Thomas said shortly after the island was placed on hurricane watch.
“We have 380 homes in Two West and over 1,000 in Two East that [could] be flooded out if this drain – that collects the stormwater from the secondary drains that we have cleaned and continue to maintain – is not cleaned,” he added.
Thomas further lamented the NWA’s reactive approach, saying, “I don’t know why they have to wait until there is a hurricane in the air before anything gets done. First time, there was a fund known as the Mitigation Fund that was channelled through the NWA to local authorities to clean drains, but this has been discontinued. How is it that they can find funds now to clean the Dyke Road drain, which the council has been calling for work to be done on for years, and they couldn’t find the money before there was a threat of a major hurricane?”
Efforts by The Gleaner to get a comment from the NWA were unsuccessful up to press time.
St Catherine South Eastern Member of Parliament Robert Miller welcomed the NWA’s move, saying it comes at a very critical time and that it is essential to prevent potential flooding and damage to the homes in nearby areas.