More than Negril’s crisis

COMPLAINTS BY hoteliers and other businesses in Negril that the town’s ongoing water shortage is threatening their viability is more than a short-term economic matter in need of an urgent, and perhaps creative, solution.

It also raises questions of how Jamaica’s policymakers have gone about development planning in that western Jamaican community, and elsewhere, and whether they ought not to press pause – or at least proceed circumspectly with projects in the pipeline – while they engage on a broad stakeholder review of new initiatives.

Put another way, the Government must ensure that there is not a continued mismatch between tourism or domestic real estate developments and supporting infrastructure, and that planning for global warming and climate change are integral to the island’s development strategy.

It would not be good if, say, in a decade’s time, 20,000 new hotel rooms were built in Jamaica and their guests struggled with water rationing. That is why Tourism Minister Ed Bartlett’s proposed “multidimensional impact assessment study” is not only necessary and urgent. However, that study must be robust in execution, and not merely be a manufactured assent to the sector’s interest.

Negril is one of Jamaica’s major tourism hubs in the west of the island. For several months, the town and nearby communities have faced long stretches of water lock-offs. At one point earlier this year, businesses in the town reported that they operated sporadically because of the water problem.

The Government, as a short-term palliative to the crisis, announced that it would truck water to the town and nearby areas. That, obviously , is not in sufficient quantities. And neither, apparently, is that mode of supplying water efficient or cost-effective.

FINANCIAL HITS

On Monday, Negril’s hoteliers – as they and the town’s chambers of commerce have done before – spoke out about their problems. They urged the Government to accelerate its major project to deliver more water to the town.

Should the crisis persist, they warned, tourists to Negril could dwindle, and hotels and other firms could be driven to the financial brink.

“Since March, Negril hoteliers have spent over J$200 million on trucking water,” said Karen Lanigran, the chair of the Negril chapter of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA). That cost, Ms Lanigran said, was 50 per cent more than the hotels’ usual water bill.

Moreover, 71 per cent of hotels in the area, she reported, said their future bookings were being hurt by the water problem. All have taken financial hits.

While the Negril water problem may now be more acute, it is not new. Six years ago, for instance, in the midst of a drought, the National-Water Commission (NWC), the state-owned water company, faced with regular outcries from the town’s tourism interests, disclosed that there was an 80 per cent decline in the normal sources of water for its major treatment facility for the area.

The company argued at the time that, but for that collapse in source supply, Logwood facility’s capacity of 7.5 million gallons a day would be more than sufficient to meet Negril’s needs. That was backed up by water lines to the town with significant redundancy.

Nonetheless, the NWC added: “Recognising the increased challenges created by the unfortunate present reality and that may be made worse by climate change, the NWC has already identified and planned for the development of alternative water supply sources for the area. Arrangements for financing and scheduling of these projects are now under active consideration ...”

PLAN FOR THE LONG TERM

Which is where Mr Bartlett’s multisectoral review of Jamaica’s tourism development plan is urgent.

Except that it cannot only focus on tourism and/or the specific requirements of that sector. It must take a holistic approach, encompassing the needs of domestic communities and their residents, who live permanently with the inconveniences that confront short-term hotel guests.

Up to the 1970s, Negril was a little village with a seven-mile stretch of white sand beach and mostly rustic accommodations. Its tourists were mainly from America’s counter-culture movement. The mainstream might not have perceived Negril to be just somewhere.

These days the town is dotted with large hotels. More are being built. Others are on the drawing board. They will be among 20,000 new hotel rooms that Mr Bartlett has promised over the next decade.

Notwithstanding the NWC’s statement of 2017, and others like it, Negril’s infrastructure, as is the case with much of Jamaica, has not kept pace with tourism’s expansion. Or the demands of domestic residents.

“Twenty years ago, we started talking about how we could get more water to Negril and we are still here talking about it, and there has been no specific action happening,” said the JHTA’s Ms Lanigran.

Matthew Samuda, the minister with responsibility for water, has, however, said that the Government will this year launch a US$209-million water upgrading project of the island’s north coast, with one of its components being the installation of a larger water line between Negril and the town of Ruseas, on the coast further to the east. That main will also link into adjacent rivers. Negril’s stakeholders demand a more urgent fix.

Whatever the Government does in the short term, it must plan for the long term without this continuous lurch from crisis to crisis.

The opinions on this page, except for The Editorial, do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Gleaner.