Kenneth Russell | South East St Ann and the case for improved emergency response

Winston* went to the farm store and spent over $200,000 on seeds, fertilisers, sprays and a spray pan. He went to the farm, used up the products and felt hopeful about the prospects for the crops. If all goes well, he will catch a good market in a few months.

His hopes were dashed days later when Hurricane Beryl came blowing.

All he has left is the spray pan.

Winston’s reality is shared by other farmers across the vegetable belt in South East St Ann (Fort George, Savana, Cowley, McNie) and is also true for those in Swamp, Prickly Pole, Pine Walk, Shelley Road, Lumbsden, and many other sections of the constituency.

Farmers returned to their farms to see ripped vegetable leaves, shrubs and vines twisted and ripped from the ground or slowly rotting under water which seem to refuse to recede out of spite. All around the constituency, it’s heart-rending to see the damage done to vegetables, yams, bananas, plantains as well as tree crops – pear, breadfruit, mangoes, and ackee.

For those farmers who can, they quickly try to mould and fertilise and spray to give them a new lease on life. The seed beds, not yet germinated, represent the invisible cost to farmers – no proof of death except their receipts.

Rural folks know the magic of bananas, breadfruit and ackee during the “lean season”. These are the rescue crops, the foods people turn to when they have nothing else. In one community, an older man told me the breadfruit tree was the one that “everybody get food from”. It lies flat on the ground filled with young fruits.

These are trees that take three to five years to bear fruit. Their replacement is not as easy as the vegetables and plantains.

And it is not only the plants. Livestock has been battered. Chickens, rabbits, and goats most severely affected.

One woman who lost her farm, almost 100 chickens and her roof, said “Everything mash-up, a start over thing.”

To make matters worse, there is also the risk to what families had reaped, especially for those who are involved in shopkeeping and rearing of animals and chickens. The freezers filled with meat are slowly thawing, and every day we pray for electricity to return as we know the meats will not last very long.

All in all, these represent a real threat to food security and a real risk that many Jamaicans, from South East St Ann and other parts of the country, will be going hungry in the months ahead. Not only have they lost what they have invested in their farms, livestock and other businesses, they have also lost the safety net provided by some tree crops.

RUBBING SALT INTO FRESH WOUNDS

Clearly the hurricane has shaken the lives of people in multiple ways. It is important that we understand that it’s not just about a few plants blown down or a few days without electricity. People have poured themselves into making a life only for it to be blown away by the savage hurricane.

As if that were not enough, the response has simply rubbed salt into the wounds of the people. While appreciating the challenges in other parishes, the response in South East St Ann has been slow and inefficient.

When I visited businesses and households in Moneague the day after, they were patching up and getting back to normal functioning. Farmers in Cowley and McNie communities already started spraying and fertilising, pruning and reaping their battered crops the day after as well. In order to help salvage what they can, they had to act quickly.

This commendable urgency of action was not matched by responsible government agencies.

Eleven days later (at the time of writing), electricity is yet to return to more than half of the constituency, including the entire Bensonton Division. This also means loss of all foods and other things requiring refrigeration, inability to cool oneself in the stifling heat and humidity, curtailment of night-time activities, absence or restricted provision of essential services like piped water. And for those able to run generators, over $2,000 per day to supply them with fuel.

The Jamaica Public Service (JPS) took more than five days to share with the public a restoration plan, which while inadequate in details, helped to calm nerves. The people still wait to hear from FLOW on why its service is almost non-existent in the constituency. For those who have lost roofs or suffered damage to infrastructure, the only assessments done are those by community members and political representatives.

In every emergency, the first and most critical aspect of the response is communication. Poor communication from government and service providers has caused anxiety among the citizens. A lot was being shared on various media but when you have no electricity and no internet access, how does one stay informed?

TOWARDS A MORE EFFICIENT RESPONSE TO EMERGENCIES

A lot of people are working hard and helping the people of the constituency under trying circumstances. The various government agencies, the member of parliament and councillors have cleared roads, restored some services in some communities, provided care packages to vulnerable residents, and continue to do a commendable job in the response. Community efforts to clear roads and help each other is particularly impressive.

Now, we need to look ahead to the recovery and ensuring more efficient responses in the future.

Here are some suggestions based on the experience in South East St Ann.

• Citizen-led assessment and initial support. Empower citizens groups to recommend persons requiring urgent assistance (within 24 hours). Recommendations from the community emergency response focal point should be acted on immediately, allowing for timely provision of support. Additional due diligence can be done subsequently.

• Predictability in preparedness and response funding. The day before Beryl arrived, the prime minister announced allocation of $5 million per constituency for emergency preparedness and response. This is a bit too late for meaningful planning.

Instead, an emergency response provision can be included in the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) or other funding for use in emergency preparedness and response. This can be structured so that members of parliament get access to an agreed percentage of the CDF for disaster planning and initial response. This funding should be automatically triggered once a Hurricane Warning is issued.

More funding can be added subsequently based on the effect of the hurricane, consistent with what the prime minister has done in the aftermath of Beryl.

• Guaranteed timeframe for service resumption. Eleven days after the hurricane, many farmers and homeowners are yet to have their losses and damages assessed.

While Digicel services returned within 24 hours of the passage of the hurricane, most subscribers in the constituency have no service from Flow up to eleven days later. The same is true for JPS, most of the constituency does not have service. The major difference is that at least there was a vague sense of what the timeline for electricity restoration, even if belatedly provided.

In an emergency, all utilities should be required to communicate a plan for restoration of services within 48 hours of the event. When people trust their lives to these companies, they must be held accountable even in a hurricane to provide information and quickly restore services.

• Rethink power sources for essential services. Across the constituency, there continues to be reliance solely on power from the JPS for essential services, including the water pumping stations, schools, police stations, clinics and some telecoms sites. So today, almost two weeks since the hurricane, areas that do not have electricity are also without piped water and cannot access the full range of other essential services.

All of these services should be retrofitted to maintain at least 75 per cent of operating capacity without the electricity provided by the JPS.

Yes, do it now as part of the resilient recovery.

• Solar solutions for households and micro businesses. No household should be dark because publicly provided power is not available. Solar bulbs have become more reliable and can remain lit throughout the night. Their use would not only address darkness in homes but also the risk associated with the use of lamps and candles.

• Small and medium-sized businesses resilience. Businesses are frustrated by the absence of essential services, including electricity and internet. They should have access to discounted prices and low interest loans to procure suitable solutions.

• Food security. Enable agricultural departments and agencies to quickly mobilise assistance to farmers in the severely affected areas. Provide seeds, sprays, fertilisers within 48 hours with additional support within 14 days.

Use technology to track all foods while under production and the responsible farmer. This allows for easy identification of farmer and status of farms. And though it has been said, many times by many people – cold storage, cold storage, cold storage.

While approached from a South East St Ann perspective, most of these lessons and suggestions could be part of a broader national plan for sustainable recovery.

Let’s not waste this crisis.

- Dr Kenneth Russell is the People’s National Party (PNP) candidate for Member of Parliament in South East St Ann. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com