Letter of the Day | Make infrastructural development sustainable

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Jamaica’s infrastructure is crumbling. At the very top of the list of infrastructural problems in Jamaica are the roads. The Government touted roadworks, major and minor, as evidence of their work and worthiness. The October 24-25 weekend of rains have proved that not all that glitters is gold. Not every new ‘road carpet’ is good. That aside, I’m not writing to discuss the sturdiness of the new roads. It is clear that in Jamaica, development and infrastructure is not at the right standard for future sustainability.

Climate change is well upon us. There has already been much evidence to support this – the record high temperatures of summer 2019, longer and starker dry season, and more intense flash floods. Jamaica has been, so far, spared the devastating hurricanes that other countries and territories in the Caribbean are still struggling to recover from. If 80 per cent of the road infrastructure was affected by the outer bands of tropical storm, what does this mean for a direct hit of a hurricane?

We would not have survived the onslaught of hurricanes like Dorian (The Bahamas), Irma (Cuba, Florida), Maria (Puerto Rico) or Harvey (Texas). Or even a recent one-two punch that Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula had with hurricanes Delta, Zeta, and now Eta. The current new generation of hurricanes are larger, stronger, move slower, and occur in quick succession of each other; dumping more rain over a longer period of time and with more powerful winds and storm surges. Our infrastructure, especially roads, have to be built to withstand these conditions and with every applicable mitigation technology/tactic.

It is estimated that climate change has swiped 0.5 – two per cent of Jamaicans economic growth in recent years. Sustainable development has to become paramount in every infrastructure project in the future. In the age of climate change, we are living on borrowed time. The seriousness of this is highlighted by the fact that Kingston is already predicted to reach climate departure in 2023. Which means that all the current slew of issues (water shortages, flooding, heat) will become the norm and not the exception.

NICHOLAS KITCHIN

Concerned Environmentalist