ST MARY, Jamaica – There is now greater protection for the coastal town of Annotto Bay, St Mary, from the impact of climate change, following the completion of the $244 million Annotto Bay Coastal Protection Project.

The project was handed over on Friday by Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who reflected on the plight experienced by the residents, due to rising sea levels caused by climate change.

Through the project, groynes have been placed in the sea which are intended to slow down wave action and trap sand, protecting the shoreline.

“Governments can’t just sit by and say, ‘it is just nature’. Governments have to act and governments have to build the infrastructure that can withstand some of the natural occurrences of sea level rise and other climate events,” Holness said.

He noted that residents have experienced the sea rising to the point where it would come over on the road, threatening buildings and livelihoods.

The geography of the coastline has also changed, Dr Holness underscored, as where the residents would have had “quite a bit of seafront” that would act as a buffer between the sea and the road, that buffer was disappearing.

Furthermore, the prime
mnister noted that the Annotto Bay main road is a key link between Kingston and the eastern end of island and that through the project, a signal is being sent to the rest of the world that, “Jamaica takes building resilience to climate change seriously”.

The Annotto Bay Coastal Protection project was funded through a loan from the World Bank and was managed by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) and the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ).

JSIF chairman, Dr Wayne Henry, cited the project as “a transformative milestone that underscores the Government’s commitment to sustainable development and resilient infrastructure for Jamaica’s coastal communities.”

“This project signals not only progress but partnership. [It] is about more than constructing coastal barriers, it is about ensuring safety, strengthening resilience and preserving livelihoods particularly for our fisherfolk and other residents whose lives are closely tied to the sea,” he added.

Managing director of the JSIF, Omar Sweeney, in his remarks, noted that 75 per cent of Jamaica’s productive industries and 82 per cent of its townships are near to the coast.

“So, there is no question that with the erosion of coastlines that we have to put in the mitigation methods,” Sweeney said.

“What has happened since we have completed this project, we can see new sand has already started to accumulate on the beach. We can see that this area is no longer vulnerable as [it was before] and so we will continue to provide these types of investment to protect this roadway,” he added.

The managing director expressed delight at having worked in the community without incident while hailing local contractors, S&G Road Surfacing Materials Limited, and supervisors, the National Works Agency (NWA), as well as other stakeholders for their work on the project.

The Annotto Bay Coastal Protection project is a sub-project of the JSIF’s Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project.

-JIS