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said that while the last few water samples taken at the Gunboat Beach in the past few years have shown that the pollution levels in the water have decreased, the Ministry of Health is not yet ready to give the beach a clean bill of health.

"There are still some water quality issues there," Mr. Smith stressed.

He said there has to be at least 10 consecutive sets of water samples, which indicate that the water is safe for recreational purposes before the Health Ministry can clear the bathing restriction at the Gunboat Beach.

At Hellshire, which is famous for its fish, festival and fine bodies, Mr. Smith said, "Hellshire does not currently have adequate bathroom facilities at the site and that beach also has site access issues."

'we can enforce closure'

The Environment Unit of the Ministry of Health has the authority to order beaches that violate the Public Health Regulations closed. "If the breaches are considered moderate, the ministry usually posts public notices on the beaches that are in breach," he explained. "However, we can enforce closure, but that is a last resort."

However, Mayor of Portmore, George Lee, has expressed concern about the situation and said that he would try to expedite things so that the ministry would not have to close the beach in his jurisdiction.

"We would be certainly unhappy if visitors come to Jamaica and cannot go to Hellshire," he said, while acknowledging that he was aware that things were not ideal at the beach.

He explained that measures were being put in place to address issues like the bathroom facilities as Hellshire had recently received a grant from the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica to do this. "They should be in the process of putting the bathroom facilities in place," he said.

According to the mayor, he intends to check on the progress of that project and see how plans to erect bathroom and pipe water amenities to the beach could be expedited. He added that occupants of the beach were also experiencing a problem in getting approval from the Urban Development Corpora-tion (UDC) to put a sewage system in place.

Access to the beach front was another unresolved problem.

"There is not much that can be done about access right now. Some huts would have to be removed, but I don't know that that would be possible in such a short time (before the Cricket World Cup)," he stated.

The mayor said that he did not think access should be a major issue and that persons still had the option of using the neighbouring Fort Clarence Beach if they were uncomfortable with Hellshire.

Fort Clarence has been recently reopened and is being operated by the UDC.

In the Government's preparation for Cricket World Cup 2007, the Environment Unit of the Ministry of Health recently did an assessment of the island's most frequently used beaches.

"The Ministry of Health has a complete work plan for Cricket World Cup 2007. There is a component that deals with recreational water quality monitoring," said Mr. Smith. "The plan for Cricket World Cup will involve identifying key recreational water monitoring sites between Trelawny and Kingston and increasing monitoring at these sites."

He said the Jamaican Government had secured funding of $1.5 million dollars for that aspect of the programme. "Some sites include Milk River, Hellshire, all major public beaches in St. Ann such as Dunn's River, the Burwood Beach in Trelawny," he said.

"The programme will be in effect for the duration of Cricket World Cup. We will be identifying sites that are known to be unsafe for bathing and will enforce bathing restriction at those sites," Mr. Smith said, while explaining that any decision to close a beach would have to be assessed on the level of threat that the public health department perceived that the beach posed.

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Portmore Mayor George Lee.