THE MOVE by the Government through the Ministry of Land and Environment to promulgate new development orders is a step in the right direction. The effects of recent natural disasters demand new regulations to mitigate the loss of life and damage to property.
Too often, legislation and supporting state apparatus are slow to catch up with social and economic developments, with the result that the impact of disasters is often worse than need be. Of course more is required than just the promulgation of new orders. What is of greater importance is that they are enforced.
We note, for example, that in the wake of the extensive damage done to the Portland Cottage area in Clarendon during the passage of Hurricane Ivan last year, that the Government indicated its intention to implement a mandatory evacuation order for certain communities with the approach of a storm or hurricane. The practicalities of this plan are yet to be fine-tuned, but it is a necessary policy which the Government needs to move quickly to implement.
In doing this they also need to plan for potential problems with access to the proposed alternative sites. Witness for example the chaos to and from Portmore for much of last week as major roadways were flooded. What if Portmore itself had been flooded by sea surges? How quickly and easily could people be evacuated to alternative locations?
The flooding disaster in Kennedy Grove, Clarendon, last week threw into sharp focus the imperative of proper environmental impact assessments prior to housing schemes being approved for construction. It also highlighted the need for proper systems to be in place to reduce the likelihood of corruption allowing for the circumventing of established policies.
According to Donovan Stanbury, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Land and Environment, new development orders will take into consideration rigorous management hazard considerations and even new environmental concerns. Time and circumstances have coincided to make these concerns obvious imperatives.
A few years ago, the campaign by a few environmentalists to call a halt to planned developments in some areas, was seen as the activism of idealistic but impractical people. We can no longer allow ourselves the luxury of complacency or boredom with the topic, but need to heed the warnings or at the very least, pay serious attention to the concerns raised by geologists and environmentalists about planned developments.
The demands on the Government's budget are high and there are
several urgent priorities, but the circumstances of our times are pushing us increasingly in the direction where the society will have to decide which of these is most urgent. It seems to us, that as a matter of policy, more and more areas will have to be designated non-residential. In which case, land in other locations may have to be co-opted for the kind of residential housing that the society demands and needs. This need not be another issue over which there are emotionally-charged accusations and counter-accusations. The times demand reasoned, rational and informed discussions as to the way forward.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
