MONTEGO BAY, St James — Last September looked very different for Georgia Adams.

The resident of Catadupa in this western Jamaica parish was excited as she prepared to have her then-six-year-old son Jevanie Kidd enter the first grade at nearby Catadupa Primary School.

Jevanie had recently graduated from Belfont Basic School and was already dubbed the sweetheart of his family. However, tragedy struck on September 8 — Jevanie’s fourth day of school — when he was washed away by a flood on his commute home. His body was found hours later by residents of the community who came out to support the family in their search for the much-loved Jevanie.

It is believed that Jevanie encountered difficulty while attempting to walk by an open ditch in the flood-prone community. The intense weather conditions, coupled with the lack of proper infrastructure, were said to have been too much for the boy.

For Adams, it has been an extremely difficult year navigating the loss of her only son while still trying to support her other children. She told the Jamaica Observer that a promise made by Member of Parliament (MP) for St James Southern, Homer Davis, to install a barrier at the ditch had brought a level of comfort to the family. This has, however, not been accomplished when Adams spoke to her five days shy of the first anniversary of the boy’s death.

“I still feel so bad about it and sometimes I have to just cry, but nothing has been done as yet. They said that they are going to build a railing there, but it still hasn’t been done,” Adams told the Sunday Observer.

“The rains have been on and off. Because in the first half [of the year], we had a lot of rains, but we know that next month is rainy time,” she added.

At the same time, Adams noted that Jevanie’s death has been extremely hard on his older sisters. The boy, who would have been entering grade two on Monday, had reportedly shared very close relationships with his two sisters. It was one of his sisters who had got him ready for school on the day that he died. The family also vividly remembers how much Jevanie had cried to stay home that day.

“They are feeling sad just the same. I am not really around them because I work every day, so they might only see me if I am on an evening shift. My younger daughter has been the same way since Jevanie died…she is always in bed. She goes to bed very early. She lies down and covers up her head, but sometimes she is not even sleeping,” Adams told the Sunday Observer.

Adams explained that she, too, has found ways to cope with the loss of her son.

“I mostly now focus on work, so sometimes I am not here at home. I use work as a way to just keep going,” Adams said.

When the Sunday Observer contacted MP Davis, he stated that the matter was initially reported to the St James Municipal Corporation and work should be done to construct the railing by the local authority. However, a well-placed source at the municipal corporation has shared that the organisation was unaware of the matter.

In the meantime, Clifford Bernard, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) councillor candidate in the Catadupa Division, told the Sunday Observer that he is aware of plans to restructure this area. The councillor candidate, while expressing major concern for the safety of residents walking along that area, called for an escalation of those plans, citing the danger looming during this year’s rainy season.

“The minister made some pledges and we are hoping that things can materialise within a certain time span because we don’t want a repeat,” said Bernard.

“It is very dangerous for kids and even senior people because if they slip and slide, that will be another casualty and that is what we want to prevent and hope not to happen again. We need a restructuring of the whole thing. We need an overhead bridge so they can walk over that section whenever rain falls [as opposed] to walking on the road that becomes the river way,” the councillor candidate stated.

Bernard pointed out that the gutter carries flood water from hilly sections of the Catadupa community and surrounding areas. In its current state, both sides of the road lead to the stream which facilitates that runoff, however, there is no infrastructure in place to ensure the safety of the road users.

A Catadupa resident, who only gave her name as Pamella, further told the Sunday Observer that parents have become fearful of the ditch, once it rains heavily. Her fear, she said, has now heightened, as her six-year-old daughter gears up to enter grade one at Catadupa Primary School.

“We are very worried once it starts to rain because that area is just not safe. I am sending out my daughter to school on Monday and I plan to ensure that I always have someone to walk with her because I am just so afraid,” she said.

Pamella added, “We still think about what happened to that young boy because he was just a baby and we hope that nothing like this will ever take place in our community. We have to protect our children, so I am begging that something be done about this gutter.”

For Sonia Hylton, the safety of her 10-year-old son is also a concern. Hylton explained that he, too, attends Catadupa Primary and has to walk in this area to head home after school.

“If it rains slightly then he can pass easily, but once we get some heavy showers, sometimes he has to just find somewhere to stay while waiting for the water to draw dung. The road needs to be fixed and they need to put in a better gutter to take the water away from the road,” Hylton bemoaned.