Poorly maintained drains wreaking havoc on flood-prone communities
Dear Editor,
One of Jamaica’s perennial issues is the poor maintenance of drainage systems across the 14 parishes. Poor drainage affects both urban and rural communities.
Our rural communities have the greatest concentration of agri-businesses and drainage ensures that the soil is properly aerated. Ineffective or poor drainage results in excess or standing water that can choke crops. Drainage also reduces soil and nutrient loss from runoff and can help prevent soil erosion.
We have witnessed, every time when it rains heavily, that the lack of proper drainage on hill slopes causes soil slippage or landslides, thus using up unnecessary financial resources in clearing roads and contributing to loss of productive hours. Prime Minister Andrew Holness said, “It is costing the country an estimated $360 million to clear roads that were flooded and blocked by trees and other debris as a result of rains associated with Tropical Storm Ian” (Jamaica Observer, September 29, 2022).
In urban towns, especially in Mandeville, whenever it rains pedestrians suffer as poorly constructed roads and sidewalks are inundated with rainwater runoff from roofs without downspouts and gutter systems and asphalt driveways and carparks without ditches, resulting in soaked shoes damaged by water. This problem is further compounded with blocked drainage systems for intentional channeling of excess water through underground trenches.
A shopping plaza opposite the methodist church solved the flooding of its paved car park by knocking holes in the retaining wall, thus creating a “waterfall” on to the sidewalk that obstructs pedestrians, thrusting them into the path of moving vehicular traffic to avoid getting drenched.
Sadly, our drainage system is both a political and educational problem. Every parish should have the ability to implement weekly or monthly maintenance of its drainage systems. We know that maintenance is a vital part of keeping a system efficiently functioning.
Every parish should have an assigned, approved engineer. Drainage is often a major element of civil engineering and construction projects and is necessary to avoid flooding and other damage. How can one account for municipalities being responsible for approval of building construction while ignoring natural land drainage systems commonly called sinkholes, causing them to be filled up for construction of buildings and disrupting natural water runoffs, resulting in flooded communities? The town of Mandeville is one such victim.
We also lack knowledge of the importance of drainage because it is not emphasised in the curriculum. How else can we account for our failure in continuing with a culture of maintenance rooted in both the knowledge and experiences of past generations and civilisations?
Dudley C Mclean II Mandeville, Manchester dm15094@gmail.com