Dear Editor,

While poor drainage maintenance and development planning has been blamed for recent devastating floods, we are failing to address the root cause of the problem: lack of proper catchment management.

In fact, a cursory look at lists of government departments and organizational structures shows that there is no office specifically tasked with dealing with this fundamental issue. How could we miss the boat in the land of forest and water?

There are many reasons why watershed management is our number one priority when it comes to environmental management. The first and most important of these is that our basins provide us with the water we need for all our industrial, commercial, domestic or institutional activities. After all, water is life.

A watershed is an area of ​​land that captures rainfall and infiltrates or infiltrates a wetland, river, lake, or groundwater. From this definition it can be argued that the whole of Jamaica is a turning point.

Poorly managed watersheds can lead to serious problems such as:

• Loss of millions of tonnes of valuable topsoil due to erosion;

• destruction of critical infrastructure such as roads, bridges and buildings;

• destruction of crops;

• poor water quality due to high sediment load.

In a poorly managed watershed, these problems will be especially evident during periods of heavy rainfall. In the current scenario, we are experiencing water locks when too much rain falls and at the same time too little rain falls. These are clear signs that our watersheds are not managed.

One of the main products from our catchment areas is fresh/potable water. Our National Water Authority (NWA) is responsible for the management, conservation and controlled allocation and use of Jamaica’s water resources. Our precious water resources are extracted, processed and sold to the public primarily by the National Water Commission and numerous private entities.

Although it is clear which organizations regulate the use of water resources and make them available to the public, it is not clear which organization is responsible for the management and regulation of the basins that produce this valuable resource. We need to give watershed management the importance it deserves. We cannot continue to take watersheds for granted as the situation will only get worse and we can expect more water shortages, more flooding and more erosion/soil loss. The impact of poor watershed management on our economy is huge; Damage to infrastructure alone from the latest incident is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Added to this cost are other indirect costs such as loss of life, damage to crops, costs associated with relocation, loss of production time, and the cost of transporting materials to stranded areas. We also pay a heavy price for damage to coastal areas that are flooded with sediment-laden waters from bare uplands.

Although natural disasters will always occur, the impact of these events can be reduced with proactive watershed management. An effective and well-coordinated watershed management program is vital to our sustainable development, especially as we grapple with the impacts of climate change.

An effective watershed management program will not only implement engineering solutions but also consider regulating activities in the watershed, especially those that have to do with soil erosion as well as drainage.

As a first step, we must classify our watersheds according to the severity of critical issues such as extent of erosion/soil loss, drainage (river reclamation and watercourse control), loss of soil cover, deforestation, etc. When we know the condition of our watersheds, we will be able to focus on activities that affect their sustainable use. These activities will include:

• Revegetation and afforestation;

• Engineering measures (river training, pond management, erosion control, sedimentation ponds for soil recovery);

• Regulation of Activities in Basins (e.g. crop types, building and road construction);

• Other sustainable agricultural practices (e.g. terracing).

While everyone must play a role, the government must take a leading role in watershed management. The Watershed Protection Act provides the legal framework for implementing the National Watershed Management Program and promulgating the necessary regulations. The law has been revised so that it is now under the authority of the Natural Resources Conservation Authority, but the existence of a Watershed Management Program is unclear.

At best, our current approach to watershed management can be described as an ad hoc approach responding to crises. We need to understand that watershed management should be our number one priority in environmental management, as it affects every aspect of our lives, from mountains to coastal areas. Since we have specific and visible organizations that manage and remove water resources from basins, we must also have a specific and visible organization that manages the basin to ensure the sustainability of the resource. It is time for the Watershed Management/Protection Organization to stand up and be recognized.

paul carroll

Consultant Manager

TEM Network – Environmental Consultants

[email protected]