Letter of the Day | Building resilience beyond reconstruction

THE EDITOR, Madam:

What weighs most heavily on my mind post Hurricane Melissa is not just what has happened, but the certainty that this can happen again.

Countless friends have lost everything. Their immediate priority is understandable: rebuild now, restore normalcy, and relieve the burden on those graciously providing temporary shelter. Appeals for immediate funding echo throughout affected communities, driven by the urgent need to move forward.

With funding pouring in, shouldn’t we invest strategically in resilience rather than simply replicating what was lost? Without transformative intervention, we risk losing it all again. Hurricane Melissa destroyed not only informal settlements in Western Jamaica but also substantial formal housing stock– likely the homes of returning residents with higher incomes and greater capacity for rapid reconstruction. Yet wealth alone cannot protect against inadequate spatial planning and climate vulnerabilities.

Many of these affected coastal and low lying settlements were established decades ago under vastly different environmental conditions. Today, they face accelerated urbanization, intensifying climate change, sea-level rise, increased storm surge, and severe coastal erosion. Coastal zones that were once relatively stable are now high-risk areas requiring comprehensive risk assessment and land-use planning reforms.

Interior settlements face equally serious challenges. Increased rainfall intensity has overwhelmed existing stormwater management systems, resulting in catastrophic flooding in areas previously considered safe. These inland communities urgently require investment in drainage infrastructure and retention basins. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) must be used to conduct detailed vulnerability mapping, identifying flood-prone zones and high-risk areas to inform evidence-based spatial planning decisions.

If Hurricane Melissa had made landfall in Kingston, the consequences would have been catastrophic. The ageing and inadequate drainage infrastructure would have failed comprehensively. Kingston requires an expansion of drainage capacity, upgrade of existing systems, and strategic drainage infrastructure development. Equally urgent is the removal of squatters from gully banks and riverine flood zones coupled with the provision of adequate social housing alternatives.

This disaster presents Jamaica with the opportunity to fundamentally reimagine our built environment. There should be emphasis on comprehensive resilience planning rather than a rush for reconstruction. Our recovery framework must include:

• Investment in resilient infrastructure and disaster-proof housing standards that exceed minimum building codes and incorporate climate adaptation measures

• Expansion of early warning systems and comprehensive disaster risk reduction programs integrated into community-level preparedness planning

• Promotion of ecosystem-based adaptation, including mangrove restoration, coral reef protection, and coastal buffer zone establishment to provide natural hazard mitigation

• Strengthening of community engagement mechanisms and governance structures to ensure participatory planning and local ownership of resilience strategies

• Development of social housing programs and informal settlement upgrading initiatives, recognizing that our most vulnerable populations bear disproportionate disaster impacts

We cannot afford to simply rebuild what existed before. Every dollar spent on reconstruction without resilience considerations is a dollar wasted when the next hurricane arrives.

MONIQUE GRANT

Urban Planner/Lecturer