THE EARLY indications that this will be a very active hurricane season gives added urgency to Prime Minister Patterson's call for legislation to empower Government to remove persons from flood-prone areas of the island, such removal to be temporary or permanent.
Indeed, the close encounter with Hurricane Dennis, and now the growing possibility that Tropical Storm Emily could become a hurricane and affect Jamaica by weekend, give added impetus to the proposed legislation. But we must move beyond talk and enact the new law before the season ends in November.
Many Jamaicans, so used to general privation and living at the margin, seem to have developed an almost fatalistic attitude to the physical dangers of certain habitations in the island. Even when the forces of nature destroy what little they possess, they return to disaster-prone areas and continue to put themselves and their families at risk. This is costly for the nation, for the people most often affected live in depressed conditions and their relocation has to be undertaken from public resources, a matter that must be urgently addressed.
The Prime Minister, in announcing the new policy, is accepting that good governance sometimes demands that people be saved from their own bad judgements and lack of prudence, especially when the likelihood of eventual loss of life is involved. Although risk education will be a central feature of the new programme, Mr. Patterson rightly points out that the proposed legislation must have 'teeth' to ensure its success. As recently as the advent of Hurricane Dennis in America, residents and visitors to the Florida Keys were ordered to evacuate the area, an order which was enforced by the police.
The newly-announced policy would not yet be in operation if Emily does indeed threaten Jamaica, but no effort should be spared by personnel of the various government agencies to get persons in disaster-prone areas to move to safer ground. The fact is that certain sections of Jamaica get flooded so consistently that they are not suitable for residential housing and should be so designated by law. Otherwise, the cost of rescue and rehabilitation becomes a recurring decimal which the national economy cannot afford.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
