Dear Editor,

First, my heart goes out to my fellow Jamaicans who lost their lives and all those who have been impacted in various ways and to different degrees. Second, the focus of my writing is to analyse the role that environmental degradation has played in the levels of destruction that we have seen.

The force of Hurricane Melissa is not something any normally built, typical residential property would withstand, so I am not blaming individuals for that. However, to what extent could some damage have been prevented if we had not cut down vast acreages of our mangroves and hillsides?

The destruction of our mangroves is a major factor in the obliteration of a lot of coastal villages in Jamaica, for example Parottee in St Elizabeth. I heard a resident on social media describing the levels of destruction there. He pointed out that his house was about a mile and a half from the sea and yet the storm surge turned his property and other properties, even two miles and more away from the shore, into a temporary playground or Melissa’s salt pool, where everything in sight — houses, boats, etc — was simply turned into salt beds of the Caribbean Sea. What was missing from the seashore? Where did these things go? The answer — mangroves that protect seashores were cut down and replaced with houses; development, if you like to call it that.

Think of countless other communities like Parottee in other parishes such as Trelawny, St James, Westmorland, and so on that have suffered major damage at the shoreline. The element that is missing is the mangroves, which is vital for the Caribbean shoreline and elsewhere. I have heard environmentalist like Peter Espeut warn about the protection of the mangroves. Why were there not strict laws to protect them? Why won’t we listen? I guess we now have to listen to Melissa’s message?

There was a very dramatic and frightening clip on social media again of a lady’s house which simply slid away and lodged perhaps a quarter acre down the sloping hillside — quite a vast concrete structure too. There was simply nothing to hold the weight because the earth was sodden, and a limestone hillside too. This relates to what we see happening on our hillsides, particularly up in St Andrew, where developers are having a field day. Vast acreages of greenery are simply being bulldozed, making way for construction of apartments.

The mayor of Kingston, responding to a particular development clearing, said that no approval was granted for this. Luckily, Melissa did not severely ravage that side of the island like elsewhere. However, why don’t the authorities act from day one or two? Does a massive apartment building have to go up before the authorities become aware of what is taking place with the vast removal of vital trees for that type of sloping hillside?

Is it that we don’t know what trees do, particularly on hillsides? Does another Melissa have to teach us this, something we all learnt in primary school? The only thing I can say is: Continue to cut down our mangroves! Continue to put up vast apartment buildings on our once-all-green mountainsides! Another Melissa, no man knows when, may cause the mountains to come tumbling down like we see happening in other countries. And the Caribbean Sea will be unimpeded to wreak havoc on seaside communities. A word to the authorities is sufficient.

Jamaica, land we love.

Leighton Jackson

leigjack1@gmail.com