By Claude Mills, Staff ReporterAS INCLEMENT weather continues to plague the island, an eroded hillside close to the border between Portland and St. Andrew is causing grief to the residents of the village of Cascade and the communities of Green Hill in West Portland.
The frequent rainfall in that area has caused land slippages which often block the road which is the main artery that connects Buff Bay, Portland to Papine, St. Andrew, leaving residents stranded on a number of occasions in the past year.
"When this road is blocked, no one who lives in Cascade or Green Hill can get to their homes. Sometimes people have to leave their cars and hike it up to their homes, or they are forced to drive back to Kingston to stay with friends," coffee farmer Alec Twyman told The Gleaner on Tuesday.
According to his estimates, the communities which are affected are home to over 10,000 people. The road is a main artery that is often utilised by motorists at times when the Junction road is impassable. The road was upgraded at a cost of US$20 million, an effort sponsored by the European Union because of the area's eco-tourism appeal.
ALTERNATIVE ROUTE
The only alternative route is a pothole-riddled, bumpy, winding route through Section, St. Peters and Content through to Mavis Bank and eventually Gordon Town, that is mostly used by trucks laden with tonnes of cherry coffee (red berries).
"Any day the rain falls heavily, we have to fret, and nobody listens to us, this is a serious problem," Mr. Twyman said.
He underlined the seriousness of the problem and gave a chilling anecdote of how he fell sick one night, and was being transported to the doctor only to find that the road was blocked.
"It happened one Sunday night, and I couldn't get out till Monday night. I had to call one of my own tractors to come and clear the way so that I could get help; it happens to everyone, we can't get to work, can't get the products down," he said.
According to residents, the problems began in November 2002 when the water main that serves the nearby Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) camp at Newcastle broke, and the water saturated the hillside and led to numerous landslides.
"At the time, we didn't know if it was a JDF or a NWC problem. Since that time, pipes have been run to divert the water from that broken section of the hillside to somewhere else, but the damage has been done, and we are approaching another rainy season in January," said Carlton Sterling, president of the Western Portland chapter of the Jamaica Agricultural Society.
BASKET WALL
"The road has been blocked three times in the last 12 months because of the frequent landslides," Mr. Sterling said. He continued: "Sometimes, even Tourwise tour buses coming from Kingston, Ocho Rios and Devon House have come up here and have had to turn back. Even the bicycle tour people have been affected. They have to start their tours beyond the landslides. We need to even build a basket wall, and remove the rocks to reduce the danger."
What compounds the problem, residents say, is the fact that visibility is poor on the roads at night because of the fog embankments that creep in unannounced.
"It is possible that someone could be coming in from Kingston to Green Hill and not know there is a landslide, and slam right into it, something needs to be done. At nights, the fog is nearly impenetrable with car lights, it's a miracle that nothing serious has happened yet," Mr. Twyman said.
Vando Palmer, communications manager at the National Works Agency (NWA), admitted that he had not heard of the problem, but promised to investigate the situation. He explained that other areas were experiencing a similar problem with landslides.
