Gov't moving ahead with plan to relocate residents from gully banks

 

 

The government is pressing ahead with a plan to relocate residents from gully banks across the Corporate Area.

 

Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness has said the residents are at the mercy of the weather, which could have catastrophic consequences.

 

Dr. Holness said the government has to ensure that lives and infrastructure are protected.

 

"We are testing out a programme now where we have said to the NWA (National Works Agency) that we are going to reclaim the gullies in Kingston, reclaim the reservations of the 20 feet away from the gullies. Now, whenever I speak like this, immediately everybody starts to get worried, 'Bwoy, the government going come throw me off'. That's not what the government wants to do. This is a democratic country and yes, the government has a right in law, for the public good, to have persons relocate. But the relocation must be done in such a way that the people who are relocated are made no worse off. And so yes, there has to be a conversation," he acknowledged.

 

Already, there is a plan to relocate more than 150 people living in the flood-prone area along Burgher Gully off Mountain View Avenue. 

 

"We will be selecting maybe four communities across the Corporate Area to start the pilot projects to have persons who are living on the gully banks, particularly those that are at risk of an epiphenomenal weather event to help them to move from the gully bank. We may have to build new facilities for them or give them grants so that they can find other facilities. But we cannot continue this unsafe practice of persons living on the gully banks. That must come to an end," the Prime Minister insisted.

 

He was speaking at the Official Opening and Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony for K2 Apartments in Bournemouth Gardens, Kingston on Wednesday.