KINGSTON, Jamaica — The longstanding problem of flooding, which has already damaged several houses while threatening others along Harbour Drive in Harbour in eastern St Andrew, will be addressed next year during the main road component of the Shared Prosperity Through Accelerated Improvement to Our Road Network (SPARK) programme.

The flooding is caused by an inadequate and poorly constructed drainage system.

The assurance of the pending fix was given by the Minister with responsibility for Works, Robert Morgan, during the recent sitting of the Standing Finance Committee (SFC) of the Parliament that examined the 2025/26 budget.

Morgan was responding to comments from the Member of Parliament for Kingston East and Port Royal, Phillip Paulwell, who complained that he had been raising the issue for nearly 10 years inside and outside the Parliament.

Describing it as a “burning matter on my mind that has been ongoing since 2017”, Paulwell said he has raised the issue at every SFC with the relevant ministry each time the committee meets to examine the budget.

“I have raised it, [and] two years ago I decided that I would no longer participate in the State of the Constituency Debate [in the House of Representatives] because this matter has not received the attention of the government, even though the prime minister has given me certain assurances,” said Paulwell.

He told Morgan that several ministers of government have given him assurances that the situation would have been addressed. Paulwell said Harbour Drive was part of a project that the World Bank did in the adjoining St Andrew East Rural constituency.

He said a drainage system was to have been established to solve some of the flooding problems of the past, but it wasn’t done properly. According to Paulwell, at the time the project was undertaken, a decision was taken that no politician should be involved.

“It wasn’t until they ran into problems that I was consulted; the previous councillor was consulted. It was badly done to the point where, for the last seven years, if there’s a drop of rainfall in that community, wherever I am in the world, I am notified [of flooding], and there’s this constant fear that people’s homes are going to be washed away. Indeed, a tremendous amount of damage has already been done to a whole slew of houses on Harbour Drive,” Paulwell lamented.

“If we get any significant flooding going forward, that entire area will become a disaster zone. Not only will homes be washed away, but people are going to die,” he warned.

Speaking directly to Morgan, Paulwell said, “Minister, for the umpteenth time, I need a specific commitment, including a start time for this project because we’ve heard funds have been allocated every year.”

And, he warned further that, “I don’t think we have time on our hands.” The veteran member of Parliament pleaded for word that the work would start in the new financial year that gets underway on April 1.

Responding, Morgan said, “I can assure you that under the SPARK programme, the main road component, this project, the corrective works to be done there, will be done. We are now in the process of finalising the roads for the main road component of SPARK, which is going to be next financial year, so that will be done under the SPARK main road component.”

Morgan reminded that the SPARK is not a patching programme. “It’s a complete programme so whenever we go on a road, we have to do drainage; if we need to put in telecommunications or sewer, we do that as well. So that road is a part of the project, and as part of the project, the drainage will have to be fixed under the main road component of SPARK, which is going to be next financial year.”