Significant portions of Jamaica should be designated World Nature Reserve. Jamaica has one of the most extensive systems of underground rivers and caves in the world constituting perhaps some of the most delicate eco-systems with a bio-diversity yet be discovered.
The North-South Highway Link in Jamaica is a costly environmental disaster waiting to happen, as the highway link is built on a sea of underground rivers with extensive connections through the island.
In 2012 the government was warned about the risk but went ahead with the project in the cheapest and most aggressive assault on the delicate eco-system using Chinese “Open-Cut and Fill” road construction instead of tunneling through portions of the mountain to save vegetation and bridging sensitive sinkholes.
““The north-south link of Highway 2000 is going to traverse the island, crossing the floodplains of at least five major rivers, requiring significant removal of forests and large-scale engineering works on steep slopes,” JET Chief Executive Officer Diana McCaulay wrote to then Minister of Transport, Works, and Housing Dr Omar Davies in December 2012. “It presents a range of serious environmental and public safety hazards, described in some detail in the EIA, yet inexplicably all these risks are rated as ‘minor’ and ‘small’,” McCaulay added.
She told Davies that she took no comfort in a statement that the risks would be mitigated or managed by the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA) and the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) because “environmental permits in Jamaica are too often poorly drafted and rarely enforced”. Despite the concerns, work on the US$730-million highway was completed in March this year. But JET, in a document compiled last month, pointed out that NEPA was lax in its monitoring of the project. http://m.jamaicaobserver.com/mobile/news/Highway-backlashGov---t-ignored-environmental-concerns-from-2012-------_69859
I wondered why the Jamaican government allowed the construction of a highway to literally sit on top of rivers not realizing the environmental implication and risk associated the project. It could well be that all those floodings in St. Mary is related to the blockage of portions of these underground rivers. The Highway cost US$730 million or US$18 million for 67 km of roadway making this the most expensive Greenfield highway project in the world.
The land of wood and water is systemically plagued with drought and lack of an effective water distribution system in most communities. “In the abundance of water the fool is thirsty....”-Bob Marley
Despite the fact that the island literally floats on a sea of interconnected subterranean rivers, chronic water problem is persistent in most areas of Jamaica. The problems have more to do with the inability and political will to harness the potential of this unlimited resource through an effective Water Resources Management Plan. http://dsidi.blogspot.ca/2016/07/why-water-is-becoming-new-oil.html
Jamaica Risk Major Flooding And Destruction To Local Businesses From The Environmental Impacts Of More Tourism Development. Jamaica may have exceeded its development capacity to support further major tourism and hotel development on the North Coast. Shoreline dredging and deep pile foundations cause soil densification and inhibit natural drainage of subterranean rivers along the North Coast out into the sea. This also adds to the depletion of sea corals and fishing grounds. Adding to the problem of environmental degradation is the growth of unplanned communities along the North Coast as result of migration of unemployed Jamaicans from other areas to work in low wage construction and hotel jobs.
A moratorium on further hotel development in the North Coast should be considered as a sustainable strategy. The Government should work with the existing capacity to create more linkages to local products and farm produce. Demand fair wages for hotel workers and levy market-based property tax assessment to renew and upgrade existing infrastructure such as sewage capacity and build a regional hospital in St. Ann's Bay or Ocho Rios.
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