Peter Espeut
THINGS HAVE not been going well. Permits have been granted for structures to be built in inappropriate places. The real truth of Kennedy Grove (Clarendon) and Nightingale Grove (St. Catherine) is now coming to light. More exposures to come! Why have some of our roads stood up so poorly to the rainfall? It's time to reassess.
I have said often that I live on the worst road in Jamaica: pitted surface, deep craters - receptacles for water after rain. At least I could drive on it, I told myself. Wonder of wonders a few weeks ago I observed loads of marl dropped along the road. "Was an election coming?" I asked myself. Then the workmen and the heavy equipment came and road works began at the other end of the road from where my house is. There wasn't enough money to pave the whole road; the tarring stopped about one-third of the way to my house, but the whole road was marled, graded and rolled. Was this good news?
MARL ROAD
The new road surface has not lasted even one month: the pits and craters are back; and now I cannot drive on it at all!
In the first place, the new marl has washed away to reveal the old surface. I believe the public works authorities need to reassess the use of marl for temporary road repairs. Marl is soft, and the particles are light, and no matter how hard it is rolled, marl will easily erode with rainfall. Two years ago the citizens' association on my road decided to take matters into our own hands. A load of crushed stone was procured and put in some of the holes. No rolling was done. The rains came and the crushed stone was heavy enough to stay in the holes. A triumph for local community action!
PITS AND CRATERS
And so the section of the road in front of my house which was marled has returned to its original condition: pits and craters; but I can still pick my way along it; but the section at the far end which was tarred is impassable, and now I cannot drive on it. To leave my home for Kingston I have to take a four-mile detour. Why? Because the surface of the one cross-drain built on the tarred road was itself tarred, and the rains last week have now dug a trench across the road at the cross-drain; the tar washed away exposing the marl, which has eroded away downwards. The sides of this trench are too steep for my car to pass without scraping. I have to detour.
I believe we need to reassess how we build and repair roads in Jamaica.
And the acting executive director of the government environment agency has disclosed that Kennedy Grove "fell through the cracks" of his agency. They got their data from the Water Resources Authority, he says, trying to pass the buck. The WRA has been quick to deny this, and to assert that the scheme should never have been built there - in a pond.
"Falling through the cracks" is a euphemism for incompetence and inefficiency. All it required was to look at Sheet 12 of the 1:50,000 metric series (topographical map of Jamaica) to see the seasonal pond clearly marked; all it required was a site visit after a shower of rain to see for oneself; or if the site visit was during a dry spell, all that was necessary was to ask any resident of the area what happens to the scheme site whenever it rains. Falling through the cracks indeed!
CRACK-FALLINGS
As I have asserted elsewhere, at the time of the crack-falling the portfolios of housing and the environment were combined into one Ministry, creating a profound conflict of interest. "Falling through the cracks" means that the environment section of the Ministry was under pressure from the housing section of the Ministry to issue a permit for the Kennedy Grove scheme to proceed. And so no environmental impact assessment was ordered.
Thankfully after another scandal - you remember where the same conflict-ridden Ministry attempted to build upper-middle class houses on Hope Gardens lands - the Prime Minister separated the two portfolios, correcting the error of judgement he had made in the first place. Because of the real world, the environment portfolio needs to be insulated from conflicts of interest, and I believe that the only way to guarantee this is for the environment portfolio to be in its own ministry. Now is a good time for a reassessment of this question.
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and is executive director of an environment and development NGO.
