DESPITE the Government’s announcement of a multi-billion-dollar rehabilitation plan for the Corporate Area’s main water conveyance channel, the Sandy Gully, residents of Cassia Park — whose homes sit on a section of its bank — remain worried about the future of their houses as the gully continues to crumble.

Daphney Bennett, a resident of Cassia Park for more than 30 years, told the Jamaica Observer that despite their repeated complaints, not much has been done to rehabilitate the gully which was built in the 1960s.

“I went down to the Ministry of Local Government and they sent me to the National Works Agency (NWA). The NWA told me that they were going to put me on the system and contact me, but no one has reached out,” said Bennett.

“It a get worse and worse and when it rains the water has nowhere to go, the gully dig out, and the water does not move. Everyone come view the gully and no one is trying to help up us. The only way are going to get help is when someone falls into the gully or the house gone. They can help us now, because when it rains the water is terrible,” added Bennett who pointed out that she has been making formal complaints since Hurricane Beryl brushed the island in July 2024.

Last October, as Jamaica prepared for Hurricane Melissa, the Observer visited Cassia Park where residents pointed to the breakaway of the gully and the erosion of its floor as they expressed fear that their homes would not survive the wind and rain which was forecast for the system.

At that time minister with responsibility for works Robert Morgan announced that the Government had allocated $4 billion to repair Sandy Gully and other major infrastructure in Kingston and St Andrew, as well as the North and South gullies in St James.

Morgan stated then that the money would be used to address long-standing structural issues, including deterioration of the invert and side walls along the gully.

He further announced that in addition to the major capital project, remedial works would be undertaken in the most vulnerable sections of Sandy Gully that were facing structural threats.

But when the Observer returned to Cassia Park last Thursday residents claimed that despite the Corporate Area missing the worst of the Category 5 Melissa, flood water and wind associated with the system worsened the structural issues facing the gully further deteriorating the invert and side walls, while undermining its floor.

One frustrated resident, who asked that her name be withheld, charged that major repair to the gully is long overdue.

“This don’t look good, this is not good for anyone, and we need something to be done before the house them gone and everything else. Right now, if you go further out, there are a lot of sinkholes so that mean underneath the gully is being undermined not only here but going further. The entire gully needs to be repaired,” the woman said.

Another resident, who gave his name as Richard, charged that the structurally compromised gully is now a major danger to people.

He alleged that a man died after he fell off the gully bank late last year.

“The gully old but it strong, if you notice the wall, all of it is broken underneath the bottom and we still walk across it that is why we call it catwalk,” said Richard.

“We don’t have any option, we would have to walk all the way around, so when we walking across it, we walk across it swiftly,” added Richard as he responded to questions about why residents would put their lives at risk by waking on the creaking gully bank.

With resident pointing fingers at their Member of Parliament, the People’s National Party’s Dennis Gordon over the failure to have the gully repaired, he told the Observer that he has made numerous calls for urgent action.

“I have raised the issue multiple times to the works minister and the National Works Agency, who promised that they were going to have it corrected,” said Gordon.

He pointed to a media release he issue last October in which he argued that, “The Sandy Gully is no longer a routine maintenance matter. It is a national infrastructure emergency.

“We cannot continue to wait for disaster before we act. The time has come for a strategic, well-funded and sustainable plan to secure the lives and livelihoods of residents living along and downstream of this vital waterway.”

Gordon also called on the Government, through the NWA, and other relevant state bodies, to provide all available engineering reports and detailed structural assessments of the main channel, culverts, outlets, and drains associated with the Sandy Gully.

Meanwhile Morgan pointed the Observer to the NWA for answers on the planned repairs to the gully but efforts to get an update from that agency have so far been unsuccessful.

Last October communication and customer services manager at the NWA Stephen Shaw indicated that the lower section of the Sandy Gully would require special attention to ensure proper rehabilitation of the waterway. Shaw, however, did not give a time line for the rehabilitation.

Cassia Park resident Daphney Bennett points to some of the structural damage in Sandy Gully. (Photo: Karl Mclarty)

A section of the bank of the Sandy Gully which has been eroded in Cassia Park, St Andrew. (Photo: Karl Mclarty)