People operating rafts illegally on White River in St Ann have been told to cease and leave by Thursday, February 13 in a crackdown by the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) on unlicensed operators and in response to security complaints from visitors.

The deadline was issued at a meeting under the White River bridge last Friday by TPDCo’s visitor, safety and experience coordinator in Ocho Rios, O’Neil Fitten.

According to Fitten, the authorities are at their wits’ end as they have been receiving a growing number of complaints about incidents at the visitor attraction.

“The cruise ships don’t stop send reports about this specific location and I was here two weeks ago, and based on my attire, I assume, a guest thought I was an official and he came up to me and said, ‘Sir, I don’t feel safe.’ These are the things that we have to take into consideration,” Fitten said.

“Right now, White River is like a sick cancer patient, and in order to treat it, it has to go through a process to be cured. This is what the authorities think is in the best interest of the country, the tourism product, and ultimately Brand Jamaica,” added Fitten.

But the removal order has infuriated raft operators.

“TPDCo a come tell we fi go Rio Nuevo… but the same man them that is sending us to Rio Nuevo have business up there that they want us to go and work in,” one female operator claimed.

“We don’t want to go up there, so we a beg a little extension so we can go to the necessary places and do this thing the correct way. I have my two kids them up a my yard, and right here is where I hustle my little bread,” she added.

Her colleague, Sebastion Williams, who said he has been a raft operator for more than five years, told the
Jamaica Observer that the activity is his only means of earning an income.

“They are sending us some place where we not even sure if the people them willing fi employ we. We have kids; right now my son just start school. The rafting do a lot for us, it keep me active throughout the day, so when them a tek this from us it don’t look good,” Williams said.

“We’re going to die of hunger,” he added.

However, Deputy Superintendent of Police Rochelle McGibbon-Scott of the St Ann Police Division, gave the raft operators strict warning to evacuate in order to prevent the recurrence of a March 2023 police/military operation in which unauthorised rafts and other vessels on the river were destroyed.

“In 2023 the authorities moved into the space and did what we called a shock and awe effect. So they just took control, confiscated, and dismantled the rafts that were on the water. We don’t want to do that this time around, but if come Thursday the space is not evacuated we will be forced to dismantle your rafts and police officers will be placed within the space to ensure no operation is happening,” she said.

Bamboo rafting and river tubing are activities offered at the attraction by Calypso Rafting Company Limited, which has been in operation for many years.