If you are reading this blog, please help to broadcast our concerns about wetland conservation in the Hellshire area and other parts of Jamaica by linking to this blog through your weblog or web site.
Hellshire residents are nature lovers and we love the natural beauty of our habitat, which we share with a host of ferns and fauna as well as almost extinct animals mostly indigenous to Jamaica. The peace and quiet of Hellshire, the ocean breeze, and yes - the crime free environment that we enjoy were all part of the lure for many to live in this protected area, some 18 kilometres away from the hustle and bustle of Kingston. Hellshire Heights Housing Community is home to many civil servants, teachers, firemen, and other professionals - an housing solution that was once the jewel of the parish of St. Catherine. We love our matchbox homes with their sunbaked concrete roofs, compensated for only by the very mangrove forest that harbours from crocodiles to crabs and, which provide us with the much loved salubrious air of filtered sea breeze.
The Hellshire wetlands include the static swamp, the salt marsh and at least one quick-sand spot. It is no secret that the wetland, which is below sea level has a water table characterised by sluggish-brackish water that provide excellent ecosystem for an abundant variety of exotic plants, reptiles, birds, fish, water bugs, frogs and mammals indigenous to the area.
Our Plight
The Urban Development Centre (UDC), that has the government of Jamaica (GOJ)'s mandate to be the custodian of this ecologically important area however, does not appear to share our sentiments. The UDC appears to have scant regard for any of the inhabitants of the area. At least a highly placed UDC official with responsibilty for high level decision making appear to view the wetlands as obstacles to development, which should be eliminated and the land reclaimed for urbanization, ghettorization and other environmentally unfriendly purposes. As a result of this type of thinking, the UDC recently swapped with the Ministry of Education and Youth (MEO), 16 acres of the wetlands with 5 acres of an originally proposed primary school site at Johnson Hill.
The Ministry of Education is hell bent on going full speed ahead with its plan to start construction by December 10, and is said to have signed the contract and disbursed $18 million to a contractor, because according to one MOE official, “if the funding money isn’t used, it may be lost for good” so “it is a done deal”. Meanwhile, the residents of Hellshire Heights were only made aware of this officially on Sunday, December 2, 2007. And to that we say “it is no done deal, no sir!”
Wetlands support a rich biodiversity outside and within the surrounding landscape, and can impact on the health of the wetlands and the productivity of the environment.
In 1971 the Convention on Wetlands was signed in Ramsar, Iran (the Ramsar Convention) and reflected the communities concerns. The Convention on Wetlands is an international treaty which has been signed by more than 150 participants of which Jamaica is one. Over 1600 sites totalling 145.2 million hectares have been listed as wetlands of international significance including 3 in Jamaica. The Convention aims at stopping the worldwide loss of wetlands and conserving the remaining wetlands through wise use and management such that activities which affect wetlands will not lead to the loss of biodiversity or diminish the ecological, hydrological, cultural or social values of such wetlands.
Wetlands support a rich biodiversity outside and within the surrounding landscape, and can impact on the health of the wetlands and the productivity of the environment.
In 1971 the Convention on Wetlands was signed in Ramsar, Iran (the Ramsar Convention) and reflected the communities concerns. The Convention on Wetlands is an international treaty which has been signed by more than 150 participants of which Jamaica is one. Over 1600 sites totalling 145.2 million hectares have been listed as wetlands of international significance including 3 in Jamaica. The Convention aims at stopping the worldwide loss of wetlands and conserving the remaining wetlands through wise use and management such that activities which affect wetlands will not lead to the loss of biodiversity or diminish the ecological, hydrological, cultural or social values of such wetlands.
Jamaica signed off to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands on February 7, 1998. We ask that all Green living well wishers and all others help us to implore the government of Jamaica to halt or reverse the proposed construction by the Ministry of Education. This at any rate will be in fulfilment of its obligations to the Ramsar Convention to conserve and protect the wetlands of Jamaica. The proposed construction of a Primary School between Hellshire Heights residential community and the wetlands adjoining the complex smacks short of scant regard for the environment, the residents and the proposed school children that the UDC is hell-bent on feeding to the crocodiles, all because the time limit for an IADB/OPEC funding earmarked for development of new schools in Jamaica is about to expire. When prompted about the danger that the animals in their natural habitat would pose to 6 to 10 year olds attending the proposed school, the UDC official simply brushed this off by saying that the animals can be rounded up and taken elsewhere. The UDC plans to build a secondary school as well as a university as part of a stage 2 and 3 plan for the wetlands.
We ask that the UDC and MOE pay attention to the work done on Nature Conservation in Israel on the one hand and learn from it (you can google it), but more so to pay closer attention to the devastating effect of the assault on the rain forest in Nicaragua by ignorant and greedy nationals of that country. The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof. The country needs responsible custodians of the environment, not people that think only of money grabbing and the bottom line for their organizations. We invite people to post their various experiences of UDC's actions all over Jamaica on this blogsite, and stop placing every blame on different administration of the GOJ.
We ask that the UDC and MOE pay attention to the work done on Nature Conservation in Israel on the one hand and learn from it (you can google it), but more so to pay closer attention to the devastating effect of the assault on the rain forest in Nicaragua by ignorant and greedy nationals of that country. The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof. The country needs responsible custodians of the environment, not people that think only of money grabbing and the bottom line for their organizations. We invite people to post their various experiences of UDC's actions all over Jamaica on this blogsite, and stop placing every blame on different administration of the GOJ.
The UDC owns a vast array of land in the Hellshire area and in the past everything was blamed on a certain god that has become mere mortal! Since he is no impediment, the new 'god' at UDC can and must find suitable, safer, alternate location for this school elsewhere within the 3 - 5 km radius. It is no secret that crocodiles cross the road frequently from the swamp to the sewage-cum-waste-water pond which the UDC not too long ago plunked right in front of our complex (apparently in exchange for not placing any concrete physical structure within the vicinity)! The sewage location was said to have once been slated for a golf course plan! Who are these planners and where do they come from?
The haphazard manner with which the UDC has managed the planning and development of the Hellshire area including the beaches is disgraceful and certainly not world class. They can begin to correct years of irresponsibility by doing something socially correct for a change. Swapping a school location with the view to building upscale town houses at the nearby Johnson Hill, while presenting potential dangers to future generations do not strike one as good planning. None of those planners would ever send their offspring to that primary school!
The UDC should concern itself with an urgent expansion program to the Hellshire main road construction if population explosion is in the making. The UDC in the past 10 years has added at least 3 housing communities to the area without ever addressing the matter of how the people will be evacuated in the event of a major catastrophe. There is a one way in and same way out of Hellshire and as it is now, people have to get up at 4:30 a.m. to struggle through potholes galore to go pay $60 at the public ‘car park’ (a.k.a. Portmore toll booth) and the children who hardly got any sleep from reaching home late from the previous night's traffic jam still cannot reach their school before 8:00 a.m. resulting in records against their names at their respective schools. People are so fed up of the commute and would give their right arm to relocate downtown if they can be assured of Hellshire's type of safety. But this is a dream because downtown is a political football and the UDC's plan for downtown has for about 30 years pretty much been on the drawing board. There are so many derelict buildings that the UDC can find ways to demolish and replan into a beautiful city, but no, they prefer to go into the rural and semi-rural areas to ravage the environment.
The UDC should concern itself with an urgent expansion program to the Hellshire main road construction if population explosion is in the making. The UDC in the past 10 years has added at least 3 housing communities to the area without ever addressing the matter of how the people will be evacuated in the event of a major catastrophe. There is a one way in and same way out of Hellshire and as it is now, people have to get up at 4:30 a.m. to struggle through potholes galore to go pay $60 at the public ‘car park’ (a.k.a. Portmore toll booth) and the children who hardly got any sleep from reaching home late from the previous night's traffic jam still cannot reach their school before 8:00 a.m. resulting in records against their names at their respective schools. People are so fed up of the commute and would give their right arm to relocate downtown if they can be assured of Hellshire's type of safety. But this is a dream because downtown is a political football and the UDC's plan for downtown has for about 30 years pretty much been on the drawing board. There are so many derelict buildings that the UDC can find ways to demolish and replan into a beautiful city, but no, they prefer to go into the rural and semi-rural areas to ravage the environment.
Where there is a will, there is a way - the UDC can and must find safer, alternate location for the construction of the primary school or let the Education ministry that sat on the funding all this time give back the money to the Inter America Development Bank /OPEC funding and learn to "make hay while the sun shines" rather than trying to force 'pupulele' down our throats.
No study was ever made by either the UDC or the MOE of the demography of the inhabitants of the properties that may otherwise be affected by noise pollution, street littering, increased security costs and unprecedented traffic congestion on the private road. The residents are mostly baby boomers and semi-baby boomers whose kids have either grown up and migrated or are on their way out. These are people that have put upwards of 40 years to serving Jamaica in their respective fields and looking forward to a peaceful golden age in their sun-patched roof tops. Besides the concern for the safety of children, there is also the need to respect their investment because they cannot now afford to go elsewhere, nor to pay for increased security costs beyond what they now have to endure.
No study was ever made by either the UDC or the MOE of the demography of the inhabitants of the properties that may otherwise be affected by noise pollution, street littering, increased security costs and unprecedented traffic congestion on the private road. The residents are mostly baby boomers and semi-baby boomers whose kids have either grown up and migrated or are on their way out. These are people that have put upwards of 40 years to serving Jamaica in their respective fields and looking forward to a peaceful golden age in their sun-patched roof tops. Besides the concern for the safety of children, there is also the need to respect their investment because they cannot now afford to go elsewhere, nor to pay for increased security costs beyond what they now have to endure.
The residents' intention is to take this matter further a field if nothing is done to address their concern. Please join us in our fight and forward this via email to as many people as you know. There may be a petition to be signed and we ask that you return to show your solidarity by signing the petition.
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