Santa Cruz, St Elizabeth – The way Deita Campbell tells it, every time she sees rain clouds, stress sets in.

All because of the failure, thus far, to complete a drainage canal that is intended to prevent flooding of her neighbourhood in Treasure Beach, South West St Elizabeth.

“It’s making me very ill, my nerves, every time I see the rain setting up I start to fret because I don’t know when I’m going to be flooded out,” Campbell recently told a delegation led by Works Minister Mike Henry, and including SW St Elizabeth Member of Parliament Chris Tufton as well as officials of the National Works Agency (NWA).

Work on the canal started in April last year with – as it turned out – the unrealistic aim being to complete the job before the height of last year’s hurricane season. Eighteen months later, the 1,000-metre-long canal is only 40 per cent complete with $21 million already spent of an estimated $70 million costing.

And by the end of the recent tour, Treasure Beach residents were no nearer to an understanding of just when the project will be completed, though Henry – who startled those on the spot by admitting he had not been briefed on the project – committed his ministry to doing its best.

Campbell and her neighbours are haunted by the memory of two years ago when rains from Hurricane Wilma led to massive overflow of the Great Pond and other fresh water ponds in the Treasure Beach area. The ponds joined to form a huge lake which forced Campbell and many of her neighbours to vacate their homes.

For several weeks small boats provided the easiest form of transportation for scores of people in Great Bay which was the worst hit community in Treasure Beach.

“The night when we were flooded out, we had water up to my breast in my house. My husband had to carry me out of my home on his back,” Campbell recalled. The experience has influenced Campbell and many of her neighbours to keep their furniture on “blocks” for the past two hurricane seasons.

Their trauma was the reason the previous People’s National Party (PNP) Government started work to drain excess water from the ponds during times of flooding, via a canal to the sea. However, the inadequacy of financial flows and unforeseen difficulties, including lengthy negotiations over the sale of land to facilitate the project, slowed proceedings – occasionally to a halt – during the past two years.

The canal – its banks breaking away in some places during heavy rains – is now mostly dug. But residents, pointing to the dangers posed to their homes and property if the breakaways continue; and the “backing up” of water from the sea during the October rains, fear the unfinished canal could itself become a threat if the project is not speedily completed.

It emerged during discussions involving Henry, Tufton, NWA officials and locals that $9 million of a budgeted $30 million remained to be spent.

On belatedly making this discovery, Henry, who had earlier very pointedly told the NWA head, Milton Hodelin, that “I believe I should have been briefed on the magnitude of a problem like this”, pledged that the allocated money would be made available.

The bulk of that will go to the building of a box culvert close to the Marblue Hotel just above where the canal enters the sea. Another box culvert was built earlier this year.

Hodelin reported that the remaining $40 million still to be allocated by government would go to paving the walls and floor of the canal as well as fencing it in; and the erection of an environmental “screen” at the entrance from the Great Pond to the canal. The Sunday Observer was also told by NWA officials that a “gate” is planned for the entrance to the sea. The screen will block the flow of debris from the pond into the canal while the gate is intended to prevent high tide from the sea flooding the canal.

A cautious Henry told residents and journalists that he would have to further “brief” himself on the project and conduct a “full review”. He appeared to suggest that once the remaining $9 million of the current allocation is spent, the remainder of the required funds would have to await next April’s Budget, which will be the first prepared by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Government elected on September 3.

He was clearly unable to adequately satisfy Campbell’s plea to “please get on with the project and let us be able to sleep comfortably in our beds”, but he promised Treasure Beach residents that he would keep communication lines open and would keep them fully informed of developments. To underline his point, the minister gave his telephone numbers – including cellular and home.

“Suffice it to say that as we prepare the new budget I will be seeking to include the immediacy of the need as it relates to the immediacy of the impact.,” Henry said.

Hodelin and Tufton identified natural run-off from the Santa Cruz Mountains and rapid construction on the slopes above Treasure Beach – which in some cases have blocked natural channels – as reasons for flooding. Hodelin noted that the Treasure Beach area, including the ponds ,was in fact a “catchment” for the mountain run off.

Tufton, who is minister of agriculture and lands, argued that with rapid “development on the hill” there was urgent “need for a development plan and we need the authorities to enforce the rules, we need some central drainage system. We need to start looking at . satellite imagery to look at a particular terrain, predict or project run-off, look at how development is taking place and then put in place a network of canals and run-offs to address the issue”.

Hotelier Jason Henzell said the dumping of wetlands was a contributory factor to flooding and he too urged a proper drainage plan.

“A lot of people are dumping up lands,” said Henzell. “As lands become more valuable in Treasure Beach, lands that were wet before are being dumped up and that is changing the pattern of where the water goes. It’s like a moving target, if we don’t stop and make an assessment of the entire area and do a drainage plan, then you are going to patch here, but it’s going to come out in another area.”