Louis E.A. Moyston | Where have all the PWDs gone?

Those persons who were born before Independence and probably a decade after 1962 will readily understand the acronym PWD which, of course, is the Public Works Department.

I thought about the PWD the moment I heard about the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA).

The Prime Minister, in a speech that was published on March 20th ( The Gleaner), spoke on the critical nature of deteriorating infrastructure and the damages left behind by Hurricane Melissa. This issue did not start in 2026. Nearly two years ago there was a release from the government that it was looking at reviewing the functions of the National Works Agency (NWA).

“We are going to review the role and functions of the NWA, possibly create either an additional unit or expand the NWA, because of the crisis we face on the roads” : ( JIS, December 31, 2024).

According to the source, the reconstruction was necessary in order to make the NWA operate more efficiently.

The idea of NaRRA elicited wide ranging criticism from the parliamentary opposition as well as from civil society groups. This idea is not new, because in 2001 the PWD was “modernised” to make it more efficient and accountable.

This piece is not part of the chorus for or against the issue of NaRRA. It raises the question of why the PWD was dismantled; and that centralising local responsibilities is, in part, the reasons for the present abject state of the national infrastructures.

The PWD offices and responsibilities were moved from the parishes to Maxfield Avenue and now there is a plan to carry out duties of the former NWA to NaRRA at Jamaica House.

PWD BUILT ROADS TO LAST

I grew up in St Thomas and I observed the role of the PWD and sub-offices in the parish. One of my uncles worked with the department and he used to make macadam and store the supply on the old road in York District. This very strong material was used to fix potholes. The roads were maintained on a regular basis, and the water tables were cleared to prevent flooding of the roads.

The PWD built roads to last, in that road building involved using broken stones to lay the base for the road material on top, as opposed to the use of marl and a thin layer of tarry material on top.

Groynes were built to prevent river erosion, especially in areas along the Johnson/Morant River and also the Plantain Garden River in eastern St Thomas.

The local PWD offices were like research centres, constantly reviewing the bridges and also sea erosion, especially in the Roselle area where the PWD built breakwater jetties into the sea to prevent coastline erosion.

“A man died today after falling from a bridge in Easington, St Thomas.” The man was attempting to cross the bridge when he fell through a gaping hole, reportedly created by heavy rains from Hurricane Melissa in October last year ( The Gleaner, April 3, 2026).

I am certain that if the PWD was still in the parish that incident would not have occurred, because the PWD would have repaired that old bridge and prevented its deterioration.

The British government has had a long history of governing in its territory and also in its colonies with its hundreds of years of experience in local government and public works departments.

It is important that the issue of public works be revisited, including road building and repair, along with an interrogation of the reasons why the offices and responsibilities of the PWD were centralised into the NWA at Maxfield Avenue. And additionally, how the works and responsibilities of the NWA were conducted by private contractors.

The PWD had its group of engineers and road and infrastructure workers with years of experience in using tar and macadam, that is, using compacted layers of small, broken stones to create a durable, well-drained surface. They had years of experience in maintenance and building. The motive of the PWD was to make well-built roads and be efficient in maintaining the infrastructures in each parish.

PROBLEM MORE THAN MELISSA

The problem is more than Melissa. Look at the history of the centralisation of the works of the PWD and the shoddy and sub-standard works done by the private contractors nationally. Combined with a national neglect, this is responsible for the extremely poor state of roads, other infrastructure and public buildings.

The profit motive took over from doing quality work. The parish council and the PWD were most effective public institutions introduced to Jamaica by British colonialism.

Historical notes show that the British developed the Public Works Department in colonial India to replace the military control of public works in the 1850s as a separate branch of government to manage civil works, roads, bridges and irrigation. The military engineering department was complimented by the British School of Engineering to produce the abundance of engineers required by the PWD. The history in Jamaica is similar.

The 1700s and 1800s played a role in public works, the building of institutional buildings, ports, garrison, and the building of Fort Charles to defend the colony. In the post 1655 era, the military played a most important role in developing irrigation methods for plantation and towns.

According to Ministry Paper No. 41 (December 24, 1969), the PWD carried out construction and maintenance of roads and bridges and the maintenance of public buildings such as hospitals, police stations, and courthouses; as well as improvement of public botanical gardens, Bath and Castleton.

Those roads, bridges, public parks and institutional buildings are now in extreme disrepair.

The privatisation of the roles and responsibilities of the PWD is central to the present state of disrepair of our roads, bridges, public buildings and the two major botanical gardens.

The NaRRA is clearly not the answer to these present problems related to public roads, infrastructures and buildings. The people must organise themselves into vocal groups to advocate for changes to reverse these centralised policies of NWA and NaRRA.

- Louis E.A. Moyston, PhD, is a lecturer in the Department of Government at The University of the West Indies. Email feedback to thearchives01@yahoo.com and columns@gleanerjm.com