Government Addressing Flooding In Sections Of St. James

Prime Minister, the Most. Hon. Andrew Holness, says the Government is taking steps to address the issue of flooding in sections of St. James.

Making a statement to the House of Representatives on Tuesday (November 16), the Prime Minister informed that funds have been earmarked to improve the drainage, particularly in the north gully.

“The Government is already down that road because we have made allocations in the Montego Bay Perimeter Road Project to undertake the studies for a proper drainage system for St. James. So, the funding is in place for that and the work for that should start and, indeed, that would be the first step towards truly addressing this problem,” Mr. Holness told the House.

He noted that plans are being made to tour the areas that were affected by recent flood rains.

On November 8, clouds from a stationary front began producing showers over western parishes. Continual rainfall began after 2:00 a.m., lasting approximately 10 hours and produced 116.6 millimetres of rainfall, which was about 114.5 per cent of the 34-year mean for monthly rainfall for November.

Mr. Holness said the total rainfall for the four-day period, from November 5 to 9 was 224.5 millimetres, which was about 220.5 per cent of the 34-year mean for November rainfall in St. James.

“So that was a significant amount of rainfall in a short period of time. There is no way that the soil could absorb that amount of water coming down in such a short period of time. So, you would have flooding, and without having gullies sized for that kind of downpour, flooding and the subsequent destruction of property was inevitable,” the Prime Minister noted.