ST ELIZABETH, Jamaica – The National Works Agency (NWA) will be meeting with members of the St Elizabeth Municipal Corporation on Thursday to address drainage issues in Santa Cruz, according to Christopher Williams, Councillor for the Santa Cruz Division in the parish.

“The town of Santa Cruz is in need of a comprehensive drainage plan right? Only that can solve the problems that we are having presently,” Williams said in regard to the issues specifically facing pedestrians.

Rain is usually welcomed in the bread basket parish but for pedestrians traversing Santa Cruz, it’s a miserable experience, as they are forced to slog through dirty water to get to their destinations.

Ankle deep floodwater is a typical sight on Coke Drive, where a number of essential service providers – including National Commercial Bank, the Santa Cruz Tax Office, several doctor’s offices and the Santa Cruz Post Office – are located. It’s one of several areas in the town that get so waterlogged residents must either wait for the rain to run off or take their chances jumping through the dirty torrents.

According to Williams, the problem is even more widespread.

“There’s a situation in the vicinity of Mother’s where there seems to be a culvert there that is blocked. Whenever we get rain the water is backed up there for a period of time. It is the responsibility of the National Works Agency,” he explained.

The councillor says despite periodical drainage cleaning efforts, resolving the problem will take extensive work. However, recent heavy rains have exacerbated the challenge to not just drains but roads, disrupting short term solutions like white marl fillings that had been placed to temporarily relieve damaged thoroughfares.

“We don’t really expect that right now we are going to be seeing any work done to rehabilitate these roads, until after the rain. In some locations we have situations where residents cannot use the roadway because the roads are completely washed away,” Williams explained.

Observer Online, during a visit to the area, saw several pregnant women, elderly men, and mothers with children hoisted across their sides, having to step down and splash across the dirty water to get around.

When it rains in the afternoons, students from the Santa Cruz Primary, also on Coke Drive; Hampton School; Munro College; and St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) can be seen crowded on plazas waiting for the flooding to subside or hopping through the water with soaked shoes, pushing the municipal corporation to reach out to the NWA.

“The municipal corporation wrote to the NWA head office and they are facilitating a meeting today with the chief engineering officer, the mayor, and myself to have some discussions,” Williams said.
He expressed satisfaction that the NWA was making efforts to hear their concerns,

“I am really hoping that it will be fruitful and we can have that problem that has been plaguing people for some [time] now [resolved],”he stressed.

The NWA had commenced a $116 million rehabilitation project on the main road from Santa Cruz to Leeds in St Elizabeth in June. The eight-month-long project should include drainage improvement, installation of sidewalks, and new paving.