URBAN developments in and around Kingston have covered a lot of open ground creating significant run-off. Grass, shrubs and woodlands capture rainwater during rainfall, and slow down the rate of water dispersal into streams and rivers. A part of the capacity of rivers is the retention of water in forests that make up catchment areas.

Kingston is a plain, which has for centuries collected water and silt and organic matter from the hills around the city, and this served as the fertile land for trees and plants in the Kingston and St Andrew plains. The development of Kingston and St Andrew didn’t take this into account, only that the lands were great for plantations and estates. This is particularly true in the areas of Hope Estate, Mona Heights, Hope Pastures, Hope Gardens, the University of Technology, Jamaica and University of the West Indies grounds, and from Barbican to Manor Park, all very fertile to this day.

Housing development has overtaken the natural processes of water storage in aquifers, deposit of topsoil, and establishment of forests. A major function of the slowing down water run-off over plants and open ground was that most of the water slowed enough to be absorbed into the ground and filter through it into underground aquifers, resulting in clean water stored in vast underground cisterns, some in limestone and others in saturated soils. Although these aquifers still exist, other things have also been soaking into the aquifer from septic pits and other pollutants, such as chemicals used in industrial and manufacturing processes, as well as oils from cars on the streets.

Keeping in mind our need for development, and the fact that rainfall patterns are changing globally, collection of rain water and storing it should not be so hard if these are incorporated into the way we design, live and build our environment. Building codes and practices are instrumental in reducing water run-off, and we can design and install structures to help retain storm water run-off that severely damage property and infrastructure when there is little or no vegetation to protect soil from erosion, and a lot of paved area to enhance the speed of water flowing over it. This serves in diverting its flow from the rivers, or allowing it to soak into the aquifers, allowing only the overflow, then getting to the “gully courses” in Kingston.

New storm water management techniques have designed several methods to trap and store water for slow release after heavy rainfall events, and one of the most recent is a system that installs underground structures by using specially designed high-density polyethylene structures that create voids to hold water. This is similar to the concept of what is referred to as a “dry well”, which is typically packed with stones and works like the naturally occurring underground aquifer, storing water below the surface, allowing it to be absorbed into the ground. These lightweight structures are designed to support the weight of cars and trucks and are ideal for use in paved parking areas and have greater water storage capacity than “dry wells” that use stones inside to maintain structures that displace the water, but do absorb water to a limited extent. Retrofitting our parking areas in the heavily paved areas of what used to be farmland and is now housing, will reduce water run-off and benefit road users, as well as reduce the need for constant repairs to public roads. Also, reducing the quantity of water run-off is particularly important since no new measures of the scale of the Kingston and St Andrew drainage improvement system of gullies that traverse Kingston and St Andrew was created over 50 years ago, while building development has expanded significantly over the area.

Another practical matter that can be implemented through the building code is to require that cisterns be incorporated into all new house designs to collect rainwater from rooftops. It must be remembered that water can be stored on a roof where it can be later used for non-critical domestic activities such as flushing toilets and watering gardens. Rainwater has a high nitrogen content that is beneficial for plant growth, because nitrogen absorbed from the atmosphere by rainfall is deposited on the ground. It is amazing to see the burst of growth of new leaves and grass after a week of rainfall, something that doesn’t happen with watering lawns from municipal water sources daily.

Rain harvesting and storm water management methods in all new construction would also be beneficial in recharging the city’s aquifers, and increase available water for wells that can be incorporated into the municipal water supply. These measures can and should be included in building code regulations. Other conservation measures are useful in reducing the amount of water typically used for personal hygiene and cooking. For example, water from kitchens, lavatories (face basins), showers, bath tubs, and laundry can all be used for watering gardens — although some chemicals are detrimental to plan growth. Recent developments in soap and other cleaning products have reduced the harmful ingredients in some products allowing reuse of bath and laundry water for gardening. It is also possible to store this water in underground cisterns, instead of directly discharging onto property, where it can be filtered and treated to neutralise the active chemicals. (It must be noted that discharge of bath water to public “air” is prohibited by the building code, but if treated, this water can be useful. There is an additional benefit of separating (toilet) wastewater from other household water fixtures, which is the reduction of the amount of water that will need to be treated in public sewage treatment plants or on site treatment systems. However, a disincentive to separating water systems in the house means more expense in plumbing to separate the wastewater to the different systems. Also, water from kitchens typically contains a lot of grease, although it also has a lot more nutrients that are beneficial to plants, the grease must be removed by a grease trap, or it will cause no end of frustration in clogged pipes, where it can get exceptionally hard and will require major work to clean.

In conclusion, it is clear that a coordinated approach is necessary for the development of rainwater management systems and best practices that will reduce overall costs to the public purse, increase the benefit to the public, and reduce the stress on the public from drought conditions. The part played by the Government in all this is regulation and enforcement. With the collective capacity of the Government created from collected taxes, planning based on collected data of censuses, establishment of zones for residential development and their density, it will make life a lot less stressful, therefore productive, for the citizens of the country. The other requirement of the Government is public education about the benefits of applying conservation and storage of potable water and rainwater harvesting and storage techniques. A reasonable expectation of the Government to encourage compliance with regulations proposed is for the issuing of incentives to citizens for the installing of specific water management systems; an example being credits against property taxes.

These are things we should expect from the Government in leadership; ie creating the environment for education and opportunity in matters that improve the well-being of all Jamaicans. However, whatever the Government chooses to do, it ultimately will have to be the public who must take up their cause in installing the systems to reduce their water bills and damage to personal or public property from water run-off. The same is true of the electricity, schools and health, but that will have to be the subject of another time. Soon, we must notice that we, the public, are all we’ve got — each other. Those who can afford it have no problem, and those who represent us don’t seem aware of these things. So, as the song goes, “God bless the child who has his own…”

Hugh M Dunbar is an architect. Send comments to: hmdenergy@gmail.com