JAMAICA'S PATCHWORK approach to road repairs is being severely challenged by the continuous rainfall being experienced across the island over recent weeks.This approach is clearly inadequate to address the extensive erosion and breakaways caused by flooding and landslides.
What is urgently needed at this time is a comprehensive plan that identifies all the areas needing most urgent repairs given their linkages to important sectors of the economy, such as agriculture, or are main arterial roadways for commerce in the transportation of goods.
We concede that this is a big challenge given the extent of the damage, but unless a systematic method of repairs is adopted, we will soon be back to the here-a-little, there-a-little approach.
The frequent cleaning of drains will have to be an important aspect of this road maintenance programme, and one which cannot be left unattended for most of the year until we enter the annual hurricane season.
In addition, public education about the dangers of environmental degradation and prosecution of persons who continue to dump garbage wherever they please, must be priorities if we are to stop the cycle of annual massive repair projects.
Too many persons, residential and commercial, are flouting environmental guidelines with impunity, often in areas where it is not difficult to determine the culprits. Unless the law is enforced rigorously, they will continue to do so.
We note that the Mayor of Kingston has made an appeal to central government on behalf of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation for a billion dollars to effect repairs and clear gullies.
This is the kind of appeal that can be, and no doubt will be replicated across the country. Each council can make a case for itself, hence the need for a clear, structured approach to determine how the limited financial resources are to be used most effectively.
We would want to believe that central government would not be so cynically manipulative, as some Jamaica Labour Party councillors are suggesting, as to withhold funding just to spite JLP-led councils. For in the end, it would be the people who are left to suffer.
While the temptation to cast blame, point fingers, grandstand and manipulate is great with the approach of another local government election, we urge all the parties concerned in local and central government to be more mindful of the interests of the country as a whole, and to get on with the most urgent job at hand.
