Carolyn Cooper | Housing Agency making money at all costs

I went to the top of the Long Mountain Main Road last Thursday to see the damage. The Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ) is clearing more than twenty acres of conservation lands that are to be cut up for fifty quarter-acre house lots. The first phase of the destruction will take nine months during which roads will be built. The ecosystem is going to be destroyed forever as land is turned into asphalt and trees are replaced by concrete structures.

None of this matters to the HAJ. There’s a famous Chinese proverb that warns, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now”. The management of the HAJ just doesn’t get it. Their motto seems to be, “The best time to cut down trees is now. And to hell with the next 20 years!”

It’s not only the HAJ that’s shortsighted. Prime Minister Holness and his Cabinet must take full responsibility for the consequences of approving this disastrous project. They could have stopped it if they took environmental protection seriously. We give lip service to international events like “Earth Day” and “World Environment Day”. But when it’s time to put our money where our mouth is, we don’t do the right thing. Immediate economic needs usually take precedence over long-term social benefits.

HAJ COMMITTING ECOCIDE

Last Sunday, I got a copy of a letter signed by Mr. Gary Howell, Managing Director of the HAJ. It had been sent to the President of the Beverly Hills Citizens’ Association Benevolent Society, Mr. Michael Bramwell. The letter is dated June 1, 2020, the very same week as World Environment Day! This year’s theme was, “Time for Nature”. I suppose the irony of the timing of his letter was lost on Mr Howell. Perhaps not! The opening sentences are pure mockery, it seems:

“Further to meetings held with representatives of the Beverly Hills Citizens Association, we take this opportunity to express our respect for your continued positive interest in seeking to ensure that developments in the wider community are undertaken with due regard to the character of the area and environmental, physical, and social sustainability.

“This has all augur [sic] well for our Mona Section 1 project which we shall be executing, commencing the week of June 1, 2020”.

Executing is certainly the right word. The HAJ is committing ecocide. Scottish lawyer, author and environmentalist Polly Higgins defined ecocide as, “The extensive damage to, destruction of or loss of ecosystems of a given territory, whether by human agency or by any other causes, to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants of that territory has been severely diminished”.

I suppose a version of Howell’s gloating letter went to the citizens’ associations of The Pines of Karachi and The Long Mountain Country Club. We have all been lobbying the HAJ to stop the development. And the Agency has actually shown little respect for our many concerns. It certainly has no regard for “the character of the area and environmental, physical, and social sustainability”.

NOTORIOUSLY INEPT NEPA

A 2000 environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the development concluded that the Mona Reservoir could be negatively impacted. Storm water full of sediment could flow off the hillside directly into dam. And the risk of sewage running into the reservoir and into the wells at the bottom of Long Mountain could not be ruled out. In 2011, the notoriously inept National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) carried out another EIA for the HAJ project. In 2013, NEPA issued an environmental permit for the development, simply dismissing all the warnings in the 2000 report.

Residents of adjacent communities have also expressed concern that the HAJ does not intend to build any roads to accommodate traffic from the development. At a meeting with the three citizens’ associations last year, the HAJ said it could not afford to build access roads. Dead-end roads that protect existing neighbourhoods from through traffic can become thoroughfares. This is exactly what happened to Beverly Hills when the main artery was slashed to bring traffic from Long Mountain Country Club through what was once a naturally gated community. The developer failed to build one of the required roads.

Furthermore, the HAJ has made no provisions for additional water supply. Existing water tanks are already inadequate. And rainwater harvesting is not a sustainable option. Long-term residents of Beverly Hills confirm that rainfall has been significantly reduced by overdevelopment. Trees attract rain. Concrete and asphalt do not. The Long Mountain Country Club devastated sixty-six acres of protected lands, thanks to the folly of the People’s National Party.

The “wider community” that will be negatively impacted by the HAJ’s “development,” includes all of Kingston and St Andrew. The loss of green spaces affects the entire city. Green spaces are our collective lungs. The HAJ “owns” an additional seventy acres of government land that I fear may also be turned into house lots. This protected land should be returned to the people of Jamaica. It is not too late to shut down the tractors on Long Mountain.

- Carolyn Cooper, PhD, is a specialist on culture and development. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and karokupa@gmail.com.