PM, gov’t team to tour Negril coastal damage from heavy tides

A team from the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, to be led by Prime Minister Andrew Holness, is to tour sections of Negril, Westmoreland on Saturday arising from flooding associated with heavy tides this week.

On Tuesday, several hotel properties along the Negril coastline experienced severe flooding due to the bad weather.

The West End Road was also flooded when a seawall collapsed after being battered by heavy tides.

Sections of Jamaica experienced increased rainfall this week arising from a cold front.

Speaking with the media today during a tour of sections of Westmoreland, Holness said a government team is to view the impact.

“Part of this tour will be to look at the coastal damage. …we will do it first thing in the morning,” Holness said while responding to questions from journalists.

According to Holness, with Jamaica being an island state, with significant low-line coastal areas, the country must be concerned about climate change. 

“We are seeing the impacts of climate change now. It's changing the weather patterns, it's changing sea levels, and it is having a significant impact on our infrastructure, particularly our coastal infrastructure,” the prime minister argued.

Holness said: “When we say that Jamaica has mainstream climate resilience, we see this coming and we are preparing all the roads that we are doing. We are either realigning them to move them inwards or we are reinforcing them with proper seawall protection to ensure that they can withstand what we know will come.”

- Albert Ferguson 

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