Gareth Manning, Sunday Gleaner Reporter

There are still signs that Government is not following its own recommendations to avoid damage to the environment in Point, Hanover, where Spanish investors are constructing a 2,000- room hotel.

During the ground-breaking ceremony for the Grand Palladium Lady Hamilton Resort and Spa, in the area last month, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller assured the country that environmental standards would be upheld in the area. However, Mrs. Simpson Miller's pronouncements were contrary to recommendations given to her own Cabinet by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) last year.

A study done for PIOJ by Allison Kenning Massa and partly published in this newspaper two months ago, recommended that villas be constructed on the site as opposed to large-scale hotels.

"The site at Point is extraordinary and deserves the most sensitive approach to development," the study stated.

It continued: "A plan that retained as much as possible of the shoreline in its natural state to complement what may be the inevitable 'manufactured' beach, would give this proposed hotel real cache. This may be a site for carefully-clustered villas, with as little modification of natural conditions as possible."

It also noted that villas would be more economically suitable for the area because it would capture the new market of people who are moving away from large hotels to times shares. The study was completed and published in July of last year. The document also made recommendations for the entire tourism expansion programme being undertaken by the Government. The programme is expected to create 12,000 new rooms by 2010.

But government ministers have denied any knowledge of the study. Both former ministers of development, Colin Campbell and his predecessor, Dr. Paul Robertson, under whose portfolio these investments fell, told The Sunday Gleaner that they knew nothing of the study and its recommendations. It is not clear whether the developers were privy to recommendations made by the PIOJ as Fiesta, the resort group, which is responsible for the development, has not responded to queries by The Sunday Gleaner.

But even while these recommendations have been made, the developers have been allowed to proceed with construction, raising concerns among environmentalists includng the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA).

Four hotels are to be built on the site with a mixture of buildings stretching up to five floors in height.

Environmental watchdog, the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET), agreed with the recommendations outlined in the PIOJ study.

After conducting their own assessment of the risks posed by the hotel to the environment in March this year, JET concluded that the size of the hotel was too large scale for such an area and argued that it was not in keeping with the nature of the coastline.

"It will restrict community access to the beach; it is a major and irreversible land-use change that will have significant environmental impacts," the group charged.

But apart from the structure of buildings, other questions have been raised about the design of the property.

facilitate construction

In the second draft of an environment impact assessment conducted by NEPA in August, the government body raised concerns over certain aspects of the development, particularly its drainage and sewerage systems. NEPA contended that the current design due to soil conditions in the area and the removal of vegetation to facilitate construction would result in a run-off of pollutants to the sea. This would cause damage to the coast, it said.

"The agency is concerned that excessive water transport caused by development-related influences could result in excessive siltation of the marine environment and excessive fluvial erosion on the property's beaches," NEPA said. The agency added that this situation would be further compounded by adding a golf course to the resort.

JET also raised concerns over the drainage and sewerage design for the property citing that its massive structure would cause several litres of pollutants to find their way into the sea, particularly the nutrient nitrogen, which would cause damage to coastal life in that region.

"Sandy soils have a notoriously poor capacity to absorb nutrients, particularly nitrogen. All of the property, including the southern section, is within a few hundred metres of the sea, particularly Lucea Harbour," JET contended.

But in a response to questions raised by NEPA, Fiesta had outlined a number of strategies that would be implemented to mitigate the drainage of pollutants to the sea including an overland drainage strategy to direct storm water from buildings directly to the sea, without coming in contact with pollutants on the ground. It maintained that drainage and discharge from the property would be rigorously monitored.