Home Sweet Home: The Celibate Environment

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Over the years that I have advocated for environmental conservation, one of the main impediments to sustainable development has been the intentional creation of conflicts of interest. When the environmental regulator is placed in a ministry which oversees an activity which damage natural resources, it is unlikely that the environment will win. In any ministerial marriage, the environment will always be subordinate to the partner portfolio.

For example, when the environment was paired with tourism, the regulators were under pressure from their minister to approve projects that degraded nearby ecosystems so that jobs could be created. In previous articles I have called this the "environment for jobs swap".

I remember when the environment portfolio was paired with health, there was the case of the malfunctioning sewage treatment plant at the Spanish Town Hospital which was dumping untreated sewage into the Rio Cobre. The Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Environment Ministry found himself in the difficult position of serving an enforcement notice against himself as PS of the Ministry of Health. The Minister was livid, and demanded that the notice be withdrawn. There are just some ministries you cannot marry with the environment: they are too full of conflicts and compromises.

You remember the case of the Ministry of Housing and the Environment and the Kennedy Grove Houising Scheme in Clarendon. To facilitate the construction of the scheme, the environment part of the ministry waived the need for an environmental impact assessment (EIA), and after the next heavy shower of rain, several of the houses were under water.

Presently, the environment portfolio is hidden within the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation - the perfect context for profound conflicts of interest, like more jobs for environment swaps. Prime Minister Holness prides himself on being new and different, bringing fresh thinking to old problems. Maybe in his next Cabinet reshuffle he could establish a stand-alone Ministry of Environment, incorporating areas like fisheries and forestry.