DÉJÀ VU
Past floods haunt MoBay residents with onset of hurricane season as drainage problems remain
Published:Sunday | June 25, 2023 | 1:40 AMMark Titus - Sunday Gleaner Writer
With its stunning hotel properties, vibrant culture, and exciting nightlife making it one of the most sought-after destinations in the world, Montego Bay’s allure continues to pull in hundreds of thousands of visitors annually. But the resort town’s vulnerability to flooding is casting a dark shadow over residents as the hurricane season begins.
Devastated by several flooding incidents since the 1990s, locals believe the failure of the authorities to tackle the problem head-on has been causing them undue stress, inconvenience and losses.
Among the contributors to the problem is the city’s network of inadequate drainage infrastructure, sections of which are being choked with garbage and overgrown vegetation, The Sunday Gleaner observed last week.
St James Central Member of Parliament (MP) Heroy Clarke acknowledges the challenge to maintain the tributaries that channel water into the North and South gullies. He also hinted that garbage collectors are hesitant to work in some crime-plagued areas, but said that bulk waste is removed from communities in the constituency annually.
“The drainage is always going to be a problem because Central St James is in the valley, so everything from Flower Hill, Salt Spring, and Farm Heights follows into those two main gullies,” Clarke told The Sunday Gleaner.
“Over the years, the problem has become [worse] because more housing development is taking place,” he added. “So, the harder you make the surface, the more water will end up in the gully, and to make matters worse, most of the drains at the top are earthen drains.”
Several tributaries take water from the hills to the main gullies, and Clarke said that although some drain-cleaning activities are carried out, “it might never be enough because the section of Montego Bay, especially the town centre that falls dead in my constituency, is below sea level, and so the drains from the river coming back to North Gully retain water”.
The MP said that the National Works Agency (NWA) and St James Municipal Corporation are responsible for monitoring and ensuring drains in his constituency are maintained. But residents in Cornwall Courts and adjoining communities say maintenance ceased after Sylvan Reid was ousted as the councillor for the Salt Spring Division after missing three consecutive municipal meetings at the start of the local COVID-19 outbreak nearly three years ago.
There was no indication that the drains in these communities are being maintained during a Sunday Gleaner visit last week. Most were unkempt, overgrown with shrubs, with debris including an old refrigerator settling in them.
One man, who used to maintain the drainage system along Ramtallie Drive in Cornwall Courts and did not want his name published, told The Sunday Gleaner that since Reid was booted, he has not been hired by the municipal corporation and no work has been done in the area. He noted that since then, whenever it rains heavily, only trucks are able to navigate some of the inundated roadways.
The situation triggers anxious moments for residents like 29-year-old Nicole Gooden, who has a family home in Valley Heights, whenever there an adverse weather system threatens.
Gooden’s home has been compromised by the constant erosion of soil on the property by the rushing waters in the nearby ravine during heavy rains.
COMPREHENSIVE DRAINAGE STUDY NEEDED
Kerry Thomas, councillor for the Mount Salem Division and a civil engineer by profession, has long maintained that the drainage system throughout Greater Montego Bay needs significant attention.
“The city has done nothing to fix the problem,” he said. “What they have done is allow more houses to be built to create more run-offs.”
Despite several attempts, The Sunday Gleaner was unable to reach NWA Communications Manager Stephen Shaw for comments on the matter and the agency’s western spokesperson, Janel Ricketts, was said to be on vacation.
But earlier this year, Ricketts said that the NWA is ready for any eventualities.
“We did quite a bit of work and our technical team is at the heart of these decisions,” she said.
But Cornwall Courts resident and businessman Pearce Roper is not convinced that the area is in a state of readiness as the hurricane season gets under way.
“Nothing has been happening in terms of preparation for the rain,” he said. “No form of clean-up has taken place here and this was not how things used to be.”
Roper said that while there is no widespread dumping in the community, there is a growing concern that the planned Montego Bay perimeter road, which will run behind his community, could bring more heartache.
On reviewing the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the Montego Bay bypass, the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) said that proper flooding analyses were not conducted even though flood alleviation is stated as a central rationale for the project.
Noting the importance of the Second City to the island’s economic growth and development, the EIA said that traffic has been a longstanding issue, but also said the perennial flooding problem was being addressed with the expansion of the North and South gullies and the installation of trash racks to prevent the garbage from being washed into the sea and beach areas. While the trash racks protect the beach from being polluted with garbage, the recent flooding incidents show that garbage in the gullies can clog the system and cause flooding in the city.
“No studies to assess the severity of current flooding conditions were carried out,” JET said. “Further, the analyses needed to assess the potential of flooding from the proposed roadworks have not been conducted. This means that scenarios that could help planners and stakeholders understand the risk of flooding going forward were not modelled quantitatively.”
While The Sunday Gleaner could not reach Stephen Edwards, managing director of the National Road Operating and Constructing Company Limited, who is marshalling the US$220-million project, councillors at the local authority say that a comprehensive drainage study is being prepared.
“Because of where I sit, I am fully aware of the plans and what is to take place, and the prime minister has given the mandate for us to have a comprehensive drainage system for the entire town of Montego Bay,” said MP Clarke.
“But while we are going to do a comprehensive drainage system, which is a major priority, the people also have a role to play by watching over the affairs of their community and prevent the illegal dumping.”