Brown (left) and Giscombe.Gareth Manning, Sunday Gleaner Reporter
Development in some rapidly growing parishes is being choked by an uncontrolled influx of migrants, raising concerns among parish officials that their towns could soon become unmanageable.
The migrants, who officials claim come from neighbouring parishes, over the years, have been pressuring the social and economic infrastructure without contributing tax revenues to the parishes.
Clarendon, and particularly its capital, May Pen, is one of the areas that has come under this pressure. The town has outgrown its population capacity, parish officials say, and is now struggling to support itself under the weight of its growing population. Demographic data show that this parish, the one-time king of sugar production, grows by an average of 1,500 persons a year - a significant number due to migration.
Plans still shelved
In 2002, Government promised a properly planned and developed town to offset some of the strain on the parish capital. But plans for the new town remain shelved, The Sunday Gleaner understands, owing to the inability to procure funding.
Milton Brown, mayor of May Pen, says people gravitate towards the town because of its topography and flourishing economy, which originated from sugar; but when that declined, bananas became its main focus and continued to attract people seeking employment.
"Victoria Banana Company came and really made a significant difference in employment in the communities around the town of May Pen ... but when the decline happened in those two industries, tobacco and citrus came along," says the mayor.
But with the continued growth of the bauxite industry in the parish, there has been a shift from agriculture to an economy centred on industry and supported by commerce and construction. The glow of these growing industries has caused a moth-like gravitation of people to the town, Mayor Brown explains.
Many of the migrants are from the interior of the parish, he says, but most are from Spanish Town and the Corporate Area. But what is troubling is that many migrants are starting informal settlements, adding to those already existing on the outskirts of May Pen.
"They come ... because May Pen has more land. There is probably less strain on them because they can come and get more water and they take the light. So you find that on the outskirts of the town, you have several sprawling informal settlements," relates Brown.
"The town was never prepared to deal with this influx of unemployed (persons), some of them unemployable, and where they are employed, many of them are small traders, so you recognise that they don't have a very strong economic base," he states.
He added that many of the migrants lack skills and education and are therefore unable to contribute to the town's economy. Instead, the number of major crimes in the parish has increased. "They don't have a skill, so you can't give them a job; a lot them fall in the 50 per cent of people who leave school and can't read, so they are available to be employed in anti-social ways," Brown discloses.
Dwellings adding pressure
Yet, formal dwellings are also putting pressure on the town, as professionals have grown to perceive the town as a get-away from the hustle and bustle of city life. These residents together with informal settlements, the mayor states, have added strain to the town's scarce water supply. Water distribution has remained in the same quantity it was some 20 years ago despite the continued population growth.
The growing population has also created motor-vehicular traffic nightmares for this small town. Several plans have been instituted in the last few years to manage the traffic mayhem on the single main street through the town, but the problem has remained a struggle.
gareth.manning@gleanerjm.com
... Also putting a strain on the 'Garden Parish'
Uncontrolled migration also has been posing a serious threat to development in the 'Garden Parish'.
The proliferation of settlements in this tourism-dependent parish is asa result of the lack of adequate housing facilities for hotel workers.
"When you talk about all the new hotels that are coming up in St. Ann ... when you look at the persons who work in the hotel industry ... there is no housing infrastructure, there is no housing scheme built in the parish of St. Ann that is affordable for workers," Delroy Giscombe, mayor of St. Ann's Bay, explains. He says the salaries of hotel employees are low and many are forced to be squatters. He adds that many of the informal settlements are on prime land, most of which belongs to the Government.
Pressure on fresh water supply
The existence of these settlements, he says, has created pressure on the parish's fresh water supply. Reports from the St. Ann health authorities say that water, particularly in Ocho Rios, has been severely polluted by waste coming from informal settlements.
Public facilities, such as markets, hospitals and schools are also bogged down by the increasing migrant population, he says. But in more recent years, the problem has resulted in an increase in the incidence of major crimes. "Crime has increased in St. Ann and when you check, the majority of those persons are not from St. Ann," states Mayor Giscombe.
Many of the parish's criminals, he notes, are coming from communities in Clarendon, St. Catherine and the Corporate Area. An the police have been able to exercise some control over the migrant criminals, they are still causing a security problem, he adds.
