Jamaicans routinely take the Kingston Harbour for granted.

Yet, if we stop to think about it, it’s soon realised that it is among this country’s more valuable natural resources.

It is in fact the world’s seventh largest natural harbour, protected by land barriers and deep enough for even very large ships to enter and come close to shore.

Those natural advantages feature high among the reasons it is one of the Caribbean’s busiest sea ports.

Protection from strong ocean currents meant Kingston Harbour was, for a long time, a centre of recreation and water sports. Older Jamaicans recall with pleasure the annual, extremely popular cross-harbour swim of decades ago.

However, by the late 1980s, the authorities had to ban the cross-harbour swim. The water quality had deteriorated so badly it was unfit for swimming.

Huge quantities of garbage of every description
— washed into the sea over time via the capital city’s many gullies and drains
— had taken its toll.

A casual look into any of Kingston’s gullies provides the hard evidence
— plastic bottles and other containers of every size and shape, discarded refrigerators, stoves, car parts, et cetera.

It isn’t just waste carelessly or witlessly disposed of by individuals which finds its way to the sea. Some of Kingston’s largest industrial plants have also been shamefully at fault. Thankfully, we hear that nowadays there has been much greater attention to reducing the leak of chemicals and other pollutants.

Inevitably marine life has suffered and it seems doubtful whether fish caught in Kingston Harbour is safe to eat.

It’s against that backdrop that two years ago GraceKennedy Foundation (GKF) collaborated with Dutch-based environmental agency, The Ocean Cleanup, local-based Clean Harbours Jamaica (CHJ) Limited, and others, for a pilot project to prevent solid waste from entering the harbour.

Ms Caroline Mahfood, CEO of GKF, tells us that the project has created barriers at seven of the 11 gullies surrounding Kingston Harbour and is now on course to take on the remaining four.

It hasn’t been cheap. We are told that over the last two years the project has cost about US$4 million.

With the help of multinational giant Coca-Cola and others, the Sandy Gully
— described as “one of the major polluters of the whole harbour”
— will be among those targeted in the new project phase, we hear.

Crucially though, simply trying to block garbage from entering the sea won’t cut it.

There must be all hands on deck if we are ever to restore Kingston Harbour and further, protect ourselves from being overwhelmed by waste.

Mr Audley Gordon, executive director of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), has repeated calls for stiffer penalties for those who litter.

But equally, as suggested by Mr Gordon, there must be a sustained, dedicated programme to bring people to an understanding that garbage is dangerous to the environment and human health and should be treated as such.

He urges a robust public education programme that goes into schools, homes, churches, business places, community centres — anywhere people are, as well as social media, traditional media.

Says Mr Gordon: “You can’t just do a piecemeal thing where you just run a programme for a few months… and you stop, no, it has to be sustained…”

Well said, we say.