MONTEGO BAY, St James – Mayor of Montego Bay and Chairman of the St James Parish Council Noel Donaldson says the city will continue to suffer severe flooding, as the current drainage infrastructure could not handle large volumes of water during heavy rains.

“It is an infrastructure problem,” Donaldson said yesterday. “Those drains are over 60 years old and (they can’t accommodate the outflow from) the development that has taken place in and around Montego Bay,” said the mayor.

Heavy rains on Wednesday inundated several streets in the city, creating a traffic gridlock that left motorists locked in traffic for hours and forced stranded pedestrians to walk home.

The mayor said major remedial work was needed to correct the problem but that pleas to central government had fallen on deaf ears. “The fundamental issue is we are unable to get central government to focus on the infrastructural needs of Montego Bay,” the mayor said. “It is a fundamental matter of governmental negligence and neglect,” he added.

The parish council, Donaldson said, did not have the necessary funding that would enable it to tackle the major infrastructural work that is required to increase the carrying capacity of the drains.

Wednesday’s flooding also drew the ire of president of the Chamber of Commerce Pauline Reid.

“I don’t know what it is with Montego Bay why the situation cannot be addressed,” said Reid. The Chamber’s office, she said, was yesterday flooded with calls from persons expressing their grief about the flooding problem.