For years now that I have been waiting for the passing of the Building Act through Jamaica’s Parliament, and it seems that it is to be relegated to the file of unnecessary irritants to all governments. I believe that the Bill must be presented for a vote up or down in the Parliament so that all building professionals know their position when it comes to use of a building code and standards for its application. It appears that consecutive governments do not see it as important, have refused to do anything about it, or not even to take note of the state of affairs.

In addition to needing the Building Act are comprehensive planning guidelines. The lack of planned developments has resulted in informal settlements that politicians now want to regularise. I must note the saying that “what gone bad ah morning can’t come good ah evening”, so making an informal settlement into a regular community is certainly going to be more expensive than building a properly planned development.

I raise this matter now that the threat of Hurricane Matthew has passed and it is clear that we are fortunate to have escaped the devastation of the destructive winds, although the rains did not relieve us of flooding on the streets across the island.

It would be useful for the Government to alert us of an agenda for the tabling of bills due for passage, rather than have us wait for an eternity for any information about them. As the current prime minister demonstrated leading up to the recent hurricane event, information to the public has a reassuring impact on the population. We have been missing this reassurance from the parliament and its members on all other matters.

We never seem to get any action from politicians unless there is a dire threat. Perhaps Prime Minister Andrew Holness can now take some of his energy to move along the passage of the Building Act into law, in addition to a national spatial plan that will replace the current piecemeal development orders.

Well-planned infrastructure will minimise damage to infrastructure when natural disasters occur. Well-planned developments ensure easier movement of citizens and emergency personnel to areas devastated by storms or earthquakes and in need of assistance. Well-planned developments also reduce the environments in which crime can take place. Criminals know that when there are no street signs to know where you are, and high fences to block views, it is easy to carry out criminal activities.

The lack of enforcement and planning controls based on laws is hampering the proper growth and development of the country. Additionally, since it appears that it is not only the police commissioner who is unaware that the Jamaican citizen has been enduring enormous stress, I will advise the powers that be that the living arrangements that many Jamaicans have placed themselves in, in order to find a job and to make a living in this country, are detrimental by design to the residents. They have come to believe that the condition in which they live is a normal thing. Every time we hear of a fire in the city, at a single address, we hear that up to 70 people have been displaced. How can 70 people be living in a single residence? More than likely it is not an apartment building, but rather circumstances in which children are sharing beds or cardboard in rooms with babyfathers and pregnant mothers and the elderly. They don’t have an indoor bathroom to use in the middle of the night when they feel the urge to go, so the scandal bag becomes the toilet fixture. There is no kitchen in which to store or prepare food for the family; outdoor coal stoves and wood fires are employed. In other words, people are living on top of each other with little or no amenities for decent living. Many even sleep in shifts on a single bed, if one is available, and their closet is a suitcase.

How many politicians are aware of this? This is the reality in most of these informal settlements. How can a person living in an environment like this be expected to be productive, happy or stress-free? The housing problem wasn’t created overnight, it started the day after Emancipation, and it was not the objective of the Government of the day in 1838, 1938, 1944, 1957, and 1962 to address it as the most critical area of our development. Additionally, since Independence, it has been exacerbated with ad hoc developments like Rema, Tivoli, South Side, etc, where people have been displaced and no thought given to their resettlement. Urban drift and the search for employment only exacerbate the situation.

This topic alone is worthy of many PhD dissertations, not this simple note. So I ask the Government address this building code and planning matter as vigorously and in as focused a manner as the preparation for the passage of Hurricane Matthew. The way to start is to resolve a national spatial plan and the passing of the Building Act, which by the way, if not passed soon, will be running into the three-year span in which amendments are issued to the International Building Code, of which our building code is supposed to be a part.

Growth and development cannot happen in the chaos that is the reality of our built environment. Our hotels are built to current international standards, while the people who work there live in conditions similar to 1838. This must change now.

Hugh Dunbar is an architect. Send comments to the Observer orhmdenergy@gmail.com.