Agencies deny responsibility for drain maintenance

WESTERN BUREAU:

The National Works Agency (NWA) and National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) are rejecting suggestions that they are responsible to maintain the tributaries and drainage systems in the hillside communities surrounding the city of Montego Bay.

For the past 20 years, there has been several incidents of flooding in Montego Bay that has resulted in infrastructure damage, business closure and loss of lives.

This is attributed to runoffs being blocked by washed-down sediments, garbage, and overgrown vegetation.

There has also been an increase in housing developments, but successive governments have failed to improve the current drainage network to match the growth.

Heroy Clarke, member of parliament (MP) for St James Central, the constituency most affected by the heavy rains, says a multi-agency approach is used to ensure that drains are maintained, but the NWA and NSWMA said this is not so.

“Over the years, the problem has become greater because more housing development is taking place,” Clarke said. ‘So, the harder you make the surface, the more water will end up in the gully.”

Several tributaries take the water from the hills to the main gullies in downtown Montego Bay, which, the MP says, are maintained, including a yearly removal of bulk waste. But he admits that the best efforts may never be enough as sections of the constituency – particularly the town centre – are below sea level.

According to Dramaine Jones, acting regional operations manager at Western Parks and Markets Waste Management Limited, his entity is not responsible for the cleaning of the drains, but to collect the debris removed.

In special circumstances, the solid waste management team will also offer support in areas outside of its remit.

“In terms of going down into the drains and cleaning them, that is not a part of our mandate,” Jones said, “We will assist where possible, especially with the use of our crane unit.”

But when the news team visited several communities in the constituency, residents claim that no work had been done for nearly three years.

Efforts to contact Leeroy Williams, mayor of Montego Bay and chairman of the St James Municipal Corporation, were unsuccessful.