Beyond the Negril beach spin

Mary Veira, Guest Columnist

In 2005, Dr Wykeham McNeill, acting as the member of parliament for Western Westmoreland, established a Beach Restoration Committee. This committee comprised members of the Negril community, stakeholders and government agencies and was asked to commission a study to address the problem of beach erosion in Negril.

Proposals were sought from the environmental professional community. One of the submissions the committee received was from CEAC Solutions Company Limited, whose managing director is Mr Christopher Burgess. This submission was turned down as it was based purely on hard structures. In the end, the contract to do the study was awarded to Smith Warner International.

The findings of the Smith Warner study, presented to the community in a meeting held in September 2007, were:

There was beach erosion estimated at between one and two metres per year for the last 30 years. This erosion was caused by the removal of seagrass, storms and rising sea levels.

Coral-reef health and fish population had declined, partly as a result of poor water-quality draining from the morass. This poor water quality was caused by agricultural run-off and inadequate sewage treatment. The problem was exacerbated by the removal of mangroves for development.

Sand production is low and this is partially because of the loss of seagrass.

Based on the above findings, Smith Warner concluded that beach erosion in Negril would continue.

PROPOSED SOLUTIONS

The solutions offered by Smith Warner to combat this erosion were:

Sand nourishment: This was the cheapest solution, estimated at US$4 million-US$7 million. It would add up to 30 metres of beach along the length of Long Bay and Bloody Bay and the lifespan would be 20 years.

Nearshore breakwaters: The cost of this was estimated to be US$20 million for 12 nearshore breakwaters, avoiding the seagrass beds.

Reef extension: This was estimated to cost US$30 million-US$40 million and was made up of reef balls (or similar, e.g., biorock) and a breakwater. This would also provide a habitat for fish.

A combined solution: This was estimated to cost US$20 million-US$25 million and would include reef extension in the north, breakwaters in the south, and reef balls. Again, the seagrass beds would be avoided.

The final recommendation from Smith Warner, after analysing all the solutions, was:

Beach nourishment was the preferred option, and possibly the combined solution, but the design would have to be refined and an environmental impact assessment done.

The water-quality issues from the morass would have to be addressed. After this report was done and presented, at a cost of US$100,000, the solutions, until recently, have not been implemented.

The National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) has now had CEAC Solutions design two large rubble mound breakwaters for Negril. This differs from what was in the Smith Warner report in the following ways:

They are in different locations of the beach.

They are of a different size from what was in the Smith Warner study.

The Smith Warner breakwaters were below the mean tide level, unlike the ones designed by CEAC Solutions, which are emergent and partially emergent.

NEPA and CEAC Solutions have completely ignored the attention that must be paid to restoring ecosystem functions in Negril, including restoration of the morass, mangroves, seagrasses and coral reefs and improvements in water quality. In fact, Mr Burgess of CEAC said, "The connection between the drying morass and shoreline proposed in the Saturday article is far-fetched." But then, in his article, Mr Burgess omitted something else of importance - that his company actually designed these breakwaters.

Also of concern to stakeholders is the fact that the Environmental Engineer of National Works Agency, Dr Mark Richards, admits, "Such a major project of sea defence has really never been done."

The stakeholders in Negril have several issues regarding the methods used by NEPA for communicating with them, and this issue has been brought to their attention on many occasions, to no avail.

Meetings to discuss long- and short-term plans for Negril are had (usually in Kingston); however, stakeholders are not included in these formative discussions.

The system used for selecting persons to be invited to their meetings is not comprehensive and many people are left out.

Meetings are held AFTER decisions have already been taken and are not consultations at all, but simply information-sharing sessions.

We have so far been unable to get minutes of these meetings.

We are aware that some work has been done in Negril by NEPA. But what are the results of these projects? Shorelock was tested - what are the results? Did the replanted seagrass survive? We are aware that with regard to the first attempt at seagrass replanting, 85 per cent of the transplants died. We believe there was a second attempt, but we do not know the result.

CONCERNS FOR BUSINESSES

The other concern to stakeholders is naturally the major disruption to business that this project will create. It calls for 24 truckloads of boulders coming into the resort town each day for nine months, bringing a total of 53,280 cubic metres of armour stone - that is 1,881,565 cubic feet. The largest boulders will be between eight and 13 tons each (one ton is 2,240 pounds), and they will require 597,524 cubic feet of this material, while there will be some slightly smaller boulders of five to nine tons each (708,765 cubic feet required).

The traffic congestion that this will create in a small town is unthinkable. In the 1990s when the sewerage project was taking place, many places on the West End had to close and some have never recovered from that blow. All businesses in Negril will feel the effects of this. Workers will be late, guests will have delays getting to their hotels, daily deliveries will be affected, collection of garbage will be difficult, schools will be disturbed - the list goes on.

Negril is primarily a resort town and there is a daily migration between West End and the beach. People staying on the cliffs go to the beach for the day, and vice versa. In the afternoons, there is a rush to watch the famous Negril sunset from the cliffs. Can stakeholders and employees afford this loss of income and can the Government afford the loss of revenue this project will generate?

Stakeholders have consistently called for a holistic approach to addressing beach erosion in Negril, but we feel this is being ignored.

We all want what is best for Negril, for tourism and for Jamaica. We want NEPA to include us and to have a say in the future plans for the place that we have invested in, work, live and love.

This is written on behalf of Negril stakeholders including Couples Resorts, Jane Issa, Caol Singh, the Williamses of Coyaba, the Grizzles of Charela Inn, among others. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and mary@couples.com.