City officials hopeful MoBay will be spared flooding

WITH JUST eight weeks to go before the end of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season, officials at the St James Municipal Corporation are relieved that there has been no serious downpour to date.

The municipal corporation is all too familiar with the issue of flooding that has devastated the resort town over the past 20 years, and councillor Richard Vernon, deputy mayor for Montego Bay, said all is in place should there be heavy rainfall and flooding.

“I am grateful that we have been spared the blushes of this active hurricane season thus far,” Vernon told The Gleaner. “Montego Bay remains proactive and aware of our inherent geophysical vulnerabilities.

“As such, our disaster unit has been doing its due diligence and making the usual preparations in the event we have to activate our response mechanisms,” he added.

The Atlantic hurricane season began on June 1 and will end on November 30.

In recent years, climate change has been found to be a key influence in the change of weather patterns and in more aggressive storm forces that have influenced intense rainfall over short periods that have been problematic for communities in the parish.

The drainage infrastructure exacerbates the problem, already made difficult by rapid urbanisation and improper land-use practices. Unplanned construction, including the filling of wetlands and improper building on floodplains, has reduced the natural capacity of the land to absorb water, increasing surface run-off during rainfall, stakeholders say.

There is also the issue of improperly disposed solid waste.

Kerry Thomas, councillor for the Mount Salem division and an engineer by profession, has long maintained that the entire drainage system throughout Greater Montego Bay needs immediate attention.

There are also fears that the multibillion-dollar Montego Bay Perimeter Road project now under way will cause challenges.

In an interview with The Gleaner’s news team, Stephen Shaw, communications manager at the National Works Agency (NWA), confirmed that no work has been done to improve the capacity of the North and South gullies that channel water from the communities overlooking the tourist city.

“The very same drainage features that we rely on over the years are the same ones that are there – the two systems that are in Montego Bay are the North and South Gully that take stormwater flows, so depending on the level of rainfall there might be issues to deal with.”

Quizzed on the US$220-million bypass project, Shaw says the NWA has nothing to do with the construction of the bypass.

“It’s another entity that is responsible, but I would be surprised if there is no consideration for drainage. But I cannot speak to that definitively because I have not seen the plans for the bypass road.”

Stephen Edwards, managing director of National Road Operating and Constructing Company (NROCC), could not be reached for a comment, up to press time.

mark.titus@gleanerjm.com