Hurricane Melissa has opened the eyes of Jamaicans to many things, including landlessness — root cause of varied ills, such as squatting and even inferior construction practices.

Some people, blissfully ignorant previously, now know that the reason so many people in places like Westmoreland build small, removable board houses is that the land doesn’t belong to them.

Those people know from long, hard experience that at short notice they may have to pick up the house and move.

Also, while it sounds good to insist that people shouldn’t build their houses in watercourses and on gully banks, the reality is that people need to live in a structure protected by walls and a roof. If they have no land of their own, they are likely to build wherever they can with whatever they have, which largely explains sprawling, zinc-fenced shanty towns not only in and around our cities and towns but also in sections of rural Jamaica.

And for the blissfully unaware, squatting or, to put it more politely, informal settlements with little or no attention to building standards has a long history. When slavery ended in the 1830s slave owners were richly compensated. Apart from their ‘freedom’, ex-slaves got nothing. Some accepted the offer of cheap wages from their former owners, continuing to live in their previous quarters — hovels, at best. Implicit to that entire arrangement was the prospect of abject poverty in perpetuity.

Some ex-slaves were fortunate enough to get help from Christian organisations to set up well-organised farming villages. Maidstone in north-western Manchester remains a celebrated example.

But many other ex-slaves drifted to urban centres in search of any kind of work or hustling. A considerable number ended up living in shanties and shacks very similar to their previous slave quarters — roots of what we see today.

Notwithstanding all of the above, Montego Bay Mayor Richard Vernon and Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie can’t be faulted for insisting that building standards should apply even in the aftermath of Melissa, and that permits should be sought from local authorities even as Jamaicans strive to speedily replace destroyed shelter.

The harsh truth, though, is that throughout western Jamaica, thousands of mostly impoverished people, now kotching with friends and relatives, etc, can’t wait around for slow-moving bureaucracy. It seems to us that the authorities will need to operate with flexibility, recognising that, in many cases, flawed reconstruction and repair work will happen. Also, they should expect that corrections will need to be done over the longer term, with help and guidance from State agencies, not least the planned National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority.

As has already been established, the cost of reconstruction will be enormous. A huge fly in the ointment, which we dare not forget, is that the next Atlantic Hurricane season is now just seven months away.

That said, it seems to us authority figures, including Messrs McKenzie and Vernon should be wary of sweeping under the carpet, allegations of corruption and graft, said to have resulted in blatant breaches of Jamaica’s building standards and codes. Evidence of buildings and plazas — approved by the relevant authorities — blocking natural watercourses with disastrous consequences were brought forcibly to the fore by Melissa’s passage.

Word-of-mouth allegations that “money pass” to facilitate such building permits abound — nurturing public cynicism and widespread distrust of authority. Also, there is that ongoing need for public education so that people at all socio-economic levels can better appreciate their civic responsibilities in minimising challenges such as flooding.

Householders should be told, for example, that replacing their grassed driveways with concrete or asphalt significantly increases the risk of flooding downslope, endangering road surfaces and their neighbours.

Farmers should know that indiscriminate, thoughtless removal of tree cover from our hillsides inevitably results in an unrestrained rush of rainwater downslope which can lead to horrendous flooding.

Further, the very crops planted on denuded land are likely to be washed way if preventive care isn’t taken.

Ultimately, life teaches that all actions have consequences, not all good. It’s a lesson we should all learn and abide by.