Dear Editor,

While the recent spate of devastating flooding has been blamed on mainly poor drainage maintenance and development planning, we fail to address the root cause of the problem which is the lack of proper watershed management.

Indeed, a cursory look at the listings of government departments and organisational structures shows no office specifically mandated to dealing with this fundamental issue. In the land of wood and water, how could we have missed the boat?

There are many reasons watershed management should be our number one priority when it comes to environmental management. First and foremost is the fact that our watersheds provide us with the water we need for all our activities, be they industrial, commercial, domestic, or institutional. After all, water is life.

A watershed is an area of land that catches rain and drains or seeps into a wetland, river, lake, or groundwater. From this definition, it can be argued that the entire Jamaica is a watershed.

Poorly managed watersheds can lead to serious problems such as:

• loss of millions of tons of precious topsoil through erosion;

• destruction of critical infrastructure such as roads, bridges and buildings;

• destruction of crops;

• poor water quality due to high sediment load.

In a poorly managed watershed these problems will be particularly pronounced during periods of heavy rainfall. In the present scenario, we experience water lock-offs when we have too much rain and also when we have too little rain. These are clear signs that our watersheds are not being managed.

One of the main products from our watershed areas is fresh/potable water. Our National Water Authority (NWA) has the responsibility for the management, protection, and controlled allocation and use of Jamaica’s water resources. Our precious water resources are abstracted mainly by National Water Commission and a plethora of private interests, treated and sold to the public.

While it is clear which organisations regulates the use of water resources and supplies the resource to the public it is not clear which organisation is responsible for the management and regulation of the watersheds that produce this precious resource. We need to treat watershed management with the importance that it deserves. We cannot continue to take watersheds for granted as the situation will only get worse and we can expect more water lock-offs, more flooding, and more erosion/soil loss. The impact of poor watershed management on our economy, is enormous – the most recent episode estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to infrastructure alone. Added to this cost are other indirect costs, including loss of life, damage to crops, the costs associated with dislocation, loss of production time, and the cost of getting supplies to marooned areas. We also pay a heavy price in damage to the coastal areas that are inundated with sediment-laden water from the denuded upland areas.

While we will always have natural disasters, with proactive watershed management the impact of these events can be reduced. An effective and well-coordinated watershed management programme is essential to our sustainable development, particularly as we grapple with the effects of climate change.

An effective watershed management programme will not only implement engineering solutions, but will also consider regulating activities in the watershed, particularly those that have a bearing on soil erosion as well as drainage.

As a first step, we must classify our watersheds in terms of the severity of critical aspects such as the extent of erosion/soil loss, drainage (river training and gully control), loss of soil cover, deforestation. Knowing the state of our watersheds we will be able to focus on activities that affect their sustainable use. These activities will include:

• Revegetation and reforestation;

• Engineering measures (river training, gully management, erosion control, settling ponds for soil recovery);

• Regulating Activities in Watersheds (eg, crop types, building and road construction);

• Other sustainable agricultural practices (eg, terracing).

While it is incumbent on all to play a part, government must play the lead role in watershed management. The Watershed Protection Act provides the legal framework for the implementation of a National Watershed Management Programme and the promulgation of the required regulations. The Act has been revised so that it is now the prerogative of the Natural Resources Conservation Authority, but the existence of a Watershed Management Programme is not clear.

At best our present approach to watershed management can be described as ad hoc, responding to crises. We need to understand that watershed management ought to be our number one priority in environmental management as it affects every aspect of our life — from the mountains to the coastal areas. Inasmuch as we have specific and visible entities that manage and abstract water resources from the watersheds, we must have a specific and visible entity that manages the watershed, to ensure the sustainability of the resource. It is past time that the Watershed Management/Protection Organisation stand up and be recognised.

Paul Carroll

Consulting Principal

TEM Network – Environmental Consultants

pcarroll@temnetwork.com