Garth Rattray | This is an opportunity to get it right

Western Jamaica and sections of middle Jamaica suffered unprecedented destruction due to category 5 Hurricane Melissa. The event has been described as catastrophic and even apocalyptic. The losses are nothing short of heartbreaking and gut wrenching. Innumerable survivors will have to start all over again from nothing.

The changing weather patterns promise longer and more dangerous hurricane seasons. Category 5 hurricanes are predicted to become more frequent. Although nothing is guaranteed to withstand such ferocity, the damage and loss can be reduced if appropriate and practical long-term planning is implemented and the responsible authorities function as they were meant to do.

After [temporary] emergency shelters, medical clinics, security outposts, food-distribution centres, and sanitary facilities are erected and functional, there will be a virtual clean slate on which to reconstruct much of the severely damaged areas of Jamaica. The Government should no longer permit willy-nilly squatting. It should allocate and assign designated, government-owned areas on which people can be safely located or relocated.

The new communities and rebuilt buildings need strong foundations. They must comply with strict building regulations. We should never again see entire houses taking off like cardboard boxes in heavy winds. No haphazard additions and constructions should be allowed. Perimeter structures should not be zinc and should be kept at a prescribed height. Commercial enterprises must not be allowed to invade residentially designated areas and degrade communities. Security posts should be strategically located, equidistant from communities.

PROPER AMENITIES

The rebuilt areas will need proper amenities – water, sewerage, and garbage disposal must be organised to provide acceptable health standards for all. No longer should our citizens dispose human waste in plastic bags. Garbage should never be piled up on the sidewalks or flung into gullies. Huge, elevated tanks for storing potable water should be installed so that citizens will have water at their disposal almost all the time.

The age-old argument for underground power and telecommunication supply will never end. In the interim, we need several large, sturdy earthquake- and hurricane- resistant centres with satellite communication and alternative power supply (solar and/or generator) for use in emergencies and after disruptive natural disasters. These centres should also act as designated emergency shelters (no more commandeering of schools), contain long-term stored food, water, bedding, and first aid kits. Additionally, each should have a concrete area to serve as a heliport if needed in emergencies or disasters.

Communities should have a shared recreation centre and a green space. Historically, rapacious developers who are in bed with corrupt public servants have sold off green spaces illegally, with no consequences and several layers of covering up their misdeeds. In the end, our fellow Jamaicans suffer for lack of areas to unwind and relax.

Contingent to making good use of this horrific disaster to upgrade our society is the minimising of inefficiency, corruption, and unaccountability in our public service. I do not expect that corruption will be entirely eliminated. Even in China, where any public official who is convicted of corruption is summarily executed, it amazes me that every now and then the international news reports that some public official or the other is going to be executed, having been found guilty of corruption. Although we can’t eliminate it, we can certainly make it a rarity.

BENEFIT FINANCIALLY

Anecdotally, some public servants benefit financially whenever construction takes place. They do so in a variety of ways. These people operate at a level where they are deeply ensconced within ‘the system’. Things are [allegedly] so bad that in my opinion, bipartisan independent oversight committees are needed to keep tabs on and vet certain activities carried out by the municipalities. The bad apples must not be allowed to sink their greedy claws into the reconstructions and new developments.

Currently, insidious politics is rampant. Some citizens make up the ‘grass roots’ supporters of political parties. They are often allowed to do their own thing so that they will feel unmolested and keep voting for the politician who gives them free reign to squat where they feel like, construct homes wherever they please, and set up business anywhere they deem ideal.

An example of this is the (now) large and well established commercial and residential community on Golding Avenue opposite the University Hospital of the West Indies. It poses several traffic hazards that impede the free flow of commuters and emergency vehicles. That community is also a source of noise nuisance. Another example is the mini commercial strip, a blatant breach that has been allowed to spring up, exist, thrive, impede traffic, and [totally] obstruct the sidewalk [ironically] juxtaposed to a peripheral wall of the Ministry of Local Government (the ministry directly responsible for monitoring and dealing with such breaches) no less. That says a lot.

An undetermined and undocumented number of government workers are nicknamed ‘chair warmers’ because they are hired solely based on their political affiliation and allegiance. Government contracts are also awarded because of [political] pressure or hanky-panky.

With the construction of destroyed communities and the development of new areas for former squatters in dangerous locations, citizens must come to look to their government for assistance and psycho-socio-economic support instead of scammers, drug dealers, and gangsters – as many communities currently do.

We intend to become a republic. This is a golden opportunity to establish a new Jamaica with love, order, organisation, discipline, proper oversight, and accountability. Once the new communities are established in the west, the principle can be reproduced islandwide over time.

Garth Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice, and author of ‘The Long and Short of Thick and Thin’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com