Editorial | Does danger lurk at Palisadoes?

An endearing, but frustrating, quality of Pearnel Charles Jr as a minister with, on paper, a mega portfolio – housing, urban renewal, environment and climate change – is his quietude. That he does not get into big, distracting arguments is good. That it is difficult to know where he stands on most things, including big policy matters, is …well ... frustrating.

A case in point is the minister’s continued silence on this newspaper’s recent report of the deepening concern of environmental scientists at the Government’s ongoing failure to resuscitate sand dunes, and to extend the replanting of mangroves along the Palisadoes strip. Or, to offer a coherent explanation for its inaction.

Mr Charles’ reticence may have to do with his lack of full ownership of his portfolio, or critical agencies therein, such as the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) and a range of bodies subordinate thereto.

NEPA is under the aegis of the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, of which Prime Minister Andrew Holness is also the line minister. If Mr Charles does not feel empowered to speak on the Palisadoes matter, he should urge Mr Holness to do so. Global warming and rising sea levels insist on its attention.

The Palisadoes is that narrow spit and tombolo at the eastern end of Kingston, leading to the Norman Manley International Airport and, further along, the historic town of Port Royal. It shields Kingston Harbour (the world’s seventh largest natural harbour) from periodic bouts of anger of the Caribbean Sea on the eastern side of the strip. It is not always wholly successful in this job of containment.

In 2004, for instance, waves whipped by Hurricane Ivan damaged sand dunes, uprooted vegetation and dumped hundreds of tonnes of sand on a section of the Palisadoes road. Some mitigation work was done in the aftermath of the storm. Stone revetments were put in along a portion of the seaward side of the spit. Dunes were recreated. Beach vegetation replanted. Three years later, Hurricane Dean left large swathes of the road again covered with sand.

These were catalysts for the Government’s 2010 decisions to significantly expand the project to protect the strip and, ultimately, Kingston. The idea was for systems to withstand a 100-year weather event.

WIDENED AND RAISED

A four-kilometre stretch of the road was widened and raised to over three metres. The revetment of massive boulders was extended along this stretch of the expanded highway. Mangroves, including those lost during construction, would be replanted. The boulders were to be covered in sand dredged from the sea. In other words, the attempt would be to come as close as possible to replicating the natural environment in a marriage of hard engineering and green/natural solutions.

But, as The Gleaner highlighted in its reporting, not too much of the latter has happened. When and where it has, it has not been rigorously sustained. The revetment has not been covered to provide an environment in which natural beach vegetation and mangroves can take hold.

The National Works Agency (NWA) said this would require dredging for the sand, the use of heavy equipment, and the employment of engineers and other workers. “[That] is something … Government would have to decide, but I don’t know of any plans at this time about that aspect of the work,” said the NWA’s communication manager, Stephen Shaw.

It, however, is not only these big-ticket items that are being left behind for want of funding. Budgets for the planting and maintenance of the mangroves have also been crimped. The upshot: the survival rate of those that were planted, especially on the harbour side of the strip, is low. They are choked by litter washed into the harbour from gullies. The need for the protection of early-growth mangroves was underlined in a 2018 analysis by Camilo Trench, a scientist at The University of the West Indies Marine Research Laboratory. Of the Palisadoes replants, he noted, the survival rate at one year was 70 per cent. That tumbled to 40 per cent after 18 months.

SHAMING EVENT

Beyond the fact that nature knows the best, her works can at times be buttressed by the efforts of man. In this case that would be by promoting the replanting of mangroves The failure in this regard is a shaming event. The Palisadoes/Port Royal mangroves have been, for three decades, a protected area, whose importance is recognised under the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty– named for the Iranian city where it was signed – for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands. But as with most things that are within the remit of NEPA, its protection and monitoring has been weak.

As the Palisadoes matter drifts and lingers, there are questions about the Government’s priorities in sea defences. Further down the coast, to the west of the Palisadoes strip, in downtown Kingston, J$1 billion is being spent on a 4.7-kilometre revetment. Some engineering and environmental experts argue that this is not where the big threat to the capital and infrastructure resides. It is to the east, if the Palisadoes strip is breached.

Perhaps Mr Charles and Prime Minister Holness have views on the matter.