Claudine Housen/Staff Photographer
If this gully could talk, it would say "Clean me please!" With green water and household refuse such as plastic bottles, what appears to be the mattress of a baby's cot and other debris, the North Gully is a public nuisance.

Western Bureau:

The National Works Agency (NWA), which recently took over portfolio responsibility for the problematic North Gully in Montego Bay, has started the $10 million upgrading work Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller promised just over a month ago.

"The project has already started," said community relations manager at the NWA, Stephen Shaw.

"We are now doing work on the wing walls and inverts and we will also be doing some amount of work in the Capita area near Green Pond," he added.

On a recent tour of western Jamaica, Prime Minister Simpson Miller said the North Gully, which is being blamed for the perennial flooding of downtown Montego Bay, was placed under the NWA portfolio, ending a long-standing dispute between the NWA and the St. James Parish Council as to which of the two entities was responsible for its maintenance.

But even as the North Gully is being prepared for the rainy season, Shaw was quick to point out there was a maintenance problem relating to capacity, as, based on the NWA's assessment, the gully was incapable of handling the volume of water that flows down from the many elevated communities whenever it rains heavily.

"The NWA has enlisted the assistance of a veteran hydrologist to examine the North Gully with a view to coming up with suitable recommendations for improvement," Shaw disclosed.

"The NWA is committed to finding a long-term solution to the flooding problem, and we are hoping that he (the hydrologist) will be able to help us in that regards," he added.

A major problem

Dumping of garbage in the North Gully, Shaw said, is also a major problem that requires an urgent solution and the NWA is suggesting a multi-agency approach, involving the Solid Waste Authority, the NWA and the St. James Parish Council.

"Whatever capacity problem we have with the North Gully can only be made worse if the dumping of garbage is allowed to continue," said Shaw.

"That is why I am suggesting we use a multi-agency approach to tackle this problem since it is unlikely that any one agency can deal with the situation."

- Adrian Frater