By George Jude, Contributor
TOURISM DEVELOPMENT in Jamaica, more specifically Negril, must take place in tandum with the development of services for the workers in the industry and address environment concerns in the community.
So said leading architect and head of the one of the Caribbean's more innovative architect and town planning firms, Design Collaborative.
Talking to the Financial Gleaner Mr. Williams said: "Neither RIU, nor any of the major hotels have considered the housing provision for workers in any meaningful way". He added for example, RIU's1200-room hotel requires a staff compliment of 2,400 and was concerned about their accommodation arrangements. "While more rooms means more revenue for the government coffers, it also means the proliferation of slums, the likes of which can be found around Ocho Rios and Montego Bay", Mr. Williams said, adding, "soon that cancer will take hold of Negril".
Mr. Williams turned his attention to Bloody Bay in Negril, which at one time was considered to be a national park for the benefit of future generations. Mr. Williams said whereas development guidelines suggested that the density should not exceed 20 habitable rooms per acre, this has increased to 50 habitable rooms per hectare, and subdividing the land was proving detrimental to the local community. By allowing these large hotels to develop in increasing numbers along Bloody Bay and Little Bloody Bay without consideration for housing, social needs, and recreational facilities for the workers, we are creating a potentially explosive situation for the future", Mr. Williams. He cited the lack of water in the area, which he said necessitates the trucking of water to the hotels. "With more rooms and hotels, it could create a greater strain on the already meagre water supplies of Negril. Mr. Williams said that in the 1960s, the run-off from the hills of Westmoreland was being filtered by the great morass on the way to the sea.
"But when you build all those hotels, most of which are not built on piles, the run-off of water from the hills is damaging the beach and the reefs are dying".
He observed that environmental concerns though a vital consideration in hotel planning, was largely being ignored by the bigger hotel groups and that in the end Negril would pay the price for their lack of vision. In terms of training facilities for the development of a core of qualified local workers for the industry, Mr. Williams said, "There isn't enough training facilities for locals and what is likely to happen is what is happening in the Cayman Islands, whereby there are more foreigners working in the industry than locals.
"In RIU's hotel in Negril I noticed a lot of Spanish people working there. They have to bring foreigners to satisfy their employment needs. So the standard for locals gets lower because we don't have people who are qualified -- we just steal workers from one hotel to the next", Williams said.
