Nekeisha Burchell | South St James: Forgotten and neglected pre- and post-Hurricane Beryl

THE RESIDENTS of south St James have once again been left in the shadows, forgotten by the Jamaica Public Service (JPS), the National Works Agency (NWA), the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MLSS), and the member of parliament. Our rural status has seemingly rendered us invisible to the powers that be, and our issues are consistently given the lowest priority. We feel abandoned.

Geographically, south St James comprises more than half of the parish of St James, yet we are treated like an afterthought. South St James is a critical agricultural hub, the food basket of the parish, supplying crops that feed households and hotels in St James and neighbouring parishes. The passage of Hurricane Beryl has devastated our crops. Fields of plantains, bananas, yams, vegetables, herbs, spices, and pineapples – now at their peak – have been decimated. The economic toll on our farmers, who invested months in nurturing these crops, is unimaginable. For us, agriculture is how we earn and how we eat, so we have lost doubly.

The recent hurricane has caused substantial damage. Many homes have lost roofs; and shops, bars, businesses have been destroyed. The impact on our community is immense, yet the response from relevant authorities has been inadequate. Despite our significant contributions to the local socio-economy, the JPS and NWA have consistently failed us.

NOTHING NEW

This neglect is nothing new to us. Even before Hurricane Beryl, we had been appealing to the JPS to repair our lines, prune overhanging trees, and replace precariously perched rotting poles. It’s the norm for these issues to leave us without electricity for days following any small rain, with no apparent urgency for our service to be restored. It wasn’t until two days before Hurricane Beryl’s arrival that many JPS trucks appeared, lining our roadways to prune the lines, leaving the tree trunks, limbs, and leaves strewn along our roadways only to be washed into our drains and gullies during the downpour – an eyesore of a stopgap. The storm has now added another layer of hardship. We urge JPS to upgrade our systems and engage in regular maintenance. Our electricity infrastructure is insufficient to withstand even minor weather events, and our electronic appliances are frequently damaged by power surges. The compensation process for these losses is long and convoluted, leaving us without reasonable recourse. And even now, we have been left for last to see light.

The NWA, too, has been a weak link. Most drains along major thoroughfares in south St James remain uncleaned, another disaster waiting to happen. The pre-existing conditions of less-than-reasonable maintenance of our drains, cleaning of gullies, verges, and channels, fixing of roads, and attention to breakaways, combined with the hurricane, have led to catastrophic outcomes. Post-hurricane clearing of roadways has largely been the sole responsibility of community men and women who have used machetes, saws, and their hands to clear pathways for vehicular traffic. Nothing has been organised in any systematic way by either the member of parliament or the NWA to see to the proper clean-up and restoration of our roadways. Breakaways and landslides have rendered our communities physically marooned, and with our homes lacking electricity, cellular service, and Internet access, we’ve been cut off from vital communication with relatives inside and outside of south St James, Jamaica, and overseas. Flow, Digicel we are waiting to be connected.

FOOD RELIEF PACKAGES

The Ministry of Labour and Social Security must also be activated to provide relief food packages to our children and indigent, as well as those who’ve lost months’ worth of food supplies to spoilage from lack of electricity and the decimation of our subsistence crops. It is the summer break, and our children cannot rely on the nutri-bun and drinks from schools to supplement their diets. Social workers must now be activated to our communities lest the nutritional health of our families be undermined. We have attempted to compile a list of homes and businesses destroyed by the hurricane, but who do we turn to for aid? We need zinc, plywood, nails, lath, 2x2, 2x4, tarpaulin, food packages, feminine products, and diapers for children and the aged.

Additionally, we call on the Ministry of Agriculture to outline their plans for our farmers. We urgently need farm supplies, seedlings, fertilisers, and tools to access and clean up our farms to restart our operations. Proper support from the Rural Agricultural Development Authority and other agencies is critical. We need early intervention for a thorough assessment of the damage and losses we’ve sustained and a recovery plan so that we can move forward and reclaim our role as proud providers of agricultural supplies to the region.

Our plea is simple: treat us with the respect and urgency we deserve.

As the MP caretaker for South St James, I appeal to the authorities to address our needs. As a resident, I remind you that we are not just a rural outpost; we are providers of the food that sustains the region. If no one comes to assess the damage and provide the necessary support, how can we recover and contribute to Jamaica’s resilience?

Nekeisha Burchell is information and public communication spokesperson for the People's National Party (PNP) and the PNP candidate for South St James, Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com