Haile A. Clacken, Gleaner Writer
WITTER
WESTERN BUREAU:
WITH ANOTHER storm following closely on the heels of Hurricane Dennis which lashed the island last week, Mayor of Black River Franklyn Witter has chided the National Works Agency (NWA) for its tardiness in clearing the main drainage systems in St. Elizabeth.
"Their tardiness is creating a problem for us," Mayor Witter said. "All the debris from the main roads may very well come down and haunt us in our area."
According to Mr. Witter there are several areas of the parish that are flood-prone and these include Middle Quarters, New River, Ballards Valley, and Luana. In recent times several residents have been trapped in flooded communities during periods of heavy rainfall.
EMILY THREATENS
The mayor's concerns may prove even more critical, as Hurricane Emily, if it maintains its current path and speed, could pass directly over or very close to the island by Saturday.
"We have met with the (NWA's) local office and we have made a report to the CEO Ivan Anderson, but to our disappointment, they have not responded. We even tried for a consultation meeting and they did not turn up," a dismayed Witter said. He noted that the St. Elizabeth Parish Council has already cleared 90 per cent of the drains under its purview and is calling on the NWA to clear the remainder.
Petra-Kene Williams, senior communications officer at the NWA, confirmed that the agency's routine maintenance programme was set back in St Elizabeth because there were no satisfactory contractors bidding for some of the contracts.
"We did not have any response to tenders for packages 1, 2, and 4 that met the requirements so that they could be awarded the contracts," she explained.
Ms. Williams said that a contract package was awarded to Coldar Construction, which cleared drains in Braes River, Wilton, Bogue, Union, Gutters to Tombstone, and Lacovia to Vauxhall, and that another contract was awarded to Jama Construction, which cleared 80 per cent of the Malvern Well, Park, Mountainside, Black River and Pedro Cross drains.
"We are not approaching it (drain cleaning) in terms of Emily approaching our island but in terms of our $25-million Disaster Mitigation Programme which will soon be under way," Ms. Williams added.
She pointed out that it was unlikely that these drain-clearing measures would begin prior to the storm's arrival.
