Salt Marsh residents blame highway for flooding

PETRE WILLIAMS, Observer staff reporter

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

SALT MARSH, Trelawny - Salt Marsh residents have blamed, at least in part, the construction of the multi-million-dollar North Coast Highway, a section of which runs through their community, for the level of flooding they experienced as Hurricane Emily blew past the island on Saturday.

They believe that inadequate drains along the highway, which is also higher than the existing old road, caused the water to settle in their homes and outside the doors of their businesses.

The flooding, they insist, has been exacerbated by the removal of mangroves to accommodate the construction of the road in certain sections.

"A de first the water ever come so far and stay so long. The water used to come and run off after it come but not this time because of the road," Monica Henry, operator of the Lobster's Inn, told the Observer yesterday. "Even when Hurricane Gilbert come, it neva stay like that but then the place neva concrete up like this."

Henry could not say what could be done to alleviate the situation, outside of putting in more drains, but insisted that every effort be made to deal with the problem.

"Something has to be done. Down there stay bad," she said.

As Emily made her way past the island on Saturday, it dumped showers on to sections of the Salt Marsh main road leading into the Falmouth. Several vehicles, which attempted to cross the waters, shut off in the vicinity of Henry's restaurant and had to be pushed from the roadway.

A significant amount of the flood waters remained in the area up to yesterday.

Beverley Palmer, a resident, said that in the over 40 years she has lived in the area, she had never seen flooding the likes of that on Saturday.

Stephen Shaw, the National Works Agency's community relations officer for the western region, indicated that the residents' concerns were not without some merit. He said, however, that until the road works were completed, they would continue to have some problems.

"We keep modifying our plan in order to ensure that all concerned are comfortable with the development," he said.

"It is true that we have lifted the roadway, and the nature of the construction is such that we normally build the embankment before we build the drains. Some drains have already been put in but they have not yet completed all the drainage work in that area."

He added that road works between Scarlett Hall and Greenside were incomplete since they formed a part of section one of the North Coast Highway, the contract for which was re-tendered.

The tender process will close by the end of the month and work should begin again before year-end, Shaw said.

At the same time, he said, contractors have been looking at plans that should reduce, if not alleviate, flooding in the area.

But he insisted that residents must accept some of the responsibility for the problem, since they continue to build in inappropriate areas.

"One of the problems that you will see there is that persons have gone ahead and literally captured sections of the area and built their homes in low-lying areas. A lot of the sections out there are not suitable for housing, the truth be told," he said.

On the issue of the mangroves, he said portions were removed with the approval of the requisite environmental and other agencies.

Meanwhile North Trelawny Member of Parliament Dr Patrick Harris said drain cleaning in the area would begin as soon as the soil was dry.

"With the amount of water that we had over the past couple of days, and if you were to look at the fact that the soil was already saturated, there would have been flooding if the highway was not there," he said. "People will complain but there are some times when we have to be reasonable and right now we had an excessive amount of water and the water must run somewhere. What we have to do is ensure that the canals, channels and drains are open and kept free."

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Salt Marsh residents blame highway for flooding