SEVERAL CEMETERIES across the island are almost full, forcing Parish Councils on the hunt for new sites and sending Jamaicans to seek other locations to bury their dead.Secretary/managers of several Parish Councils have reported that some cemeteries are up to 95 per cent full and that they are scouting for new land. In at least one parish the situation has been described as "critical".
There is a critical need for land in the west as people have had to be referred to other cemeteries," St. Mary Parish Council Secretary/Manager, Sheldon Peart, said recently.
Mr. Peart said that there are six cemeteries in St. Mary and one, the Retreat cemetery, is 95 per cent full. His search for a cemetery location has so far proven futile, he said, as the Public Health Department has not approved any new site.
Other parishes in a similar situation are Hanover, which has 11 cemeteries of which only four are in use and one, the Lucea cemetery being 95 per cent full; St. Elizabeth which has reached a 60 per cent capacity at its sole cemetery in Black River; Westmoreland whose Tate cemetery has reached 75 per cent of its capacity; St. James's main cemetery at Pie River which is 95 per cent full; and Portland's Buff Bay cemetery which is about 70 per cent full.
That the cemeteries are full is not due solely to the number of bodies buried in them, according to secretary managers, who point to poor layout of grave sites, huge tombstones and sepulchres, poor record keeping and allocation of lands according to denomination as other reasons.
"There has been waste of space in the layout and the big sepulchres," said Lelieth Allen, secretary manager of the St. James Parish Council. She said St. James is contemplating a lawn-style layout for a new cemetery to be located in Retirement.
The St. Catherine Parish Council, which had to close one of its five cemeteries some two years ago, has started work on a $40 million burial site to be located in Hill Run near Duncan's Road.
Despite the situation at the cemeteries, Parish Councils are discouraging backyard burials, which is a Jamaican custom popular among the older generation. The councillors believe the practice can lead not only to devaluation of property, but shortage of land.
The tradition of backyard burials, however, is not disallowed by law, according to Derrick McCalla, acting chief public health inspector of St. Mary. "It only becomes a problem if it inconveniences neighbours," he said.
Public burial sites, however, must be approved by the Commissioner of Lands, Water Authority and the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA) to ensure primarily that "there is no vulnerability of the groundwater to contamination and subsequent risks to public health."
