climate resilience and land use

The prime minister has formally positioned Black River’s redevelopment as a national template for climate-responsive planning, to be applied consistently across every coastal and low-lying community in Jamaica. The ambition is the right one. Whether the execution matches it will determine the value of the lesson Melissa forced the country to learn.

Government agencies and residents have begun clearing hurricane debris from the mangrove wetlands at Parottee, restoring the coastal buffer that protects homes and land from erosion and flooding. The work is the beginning of a years-long restoration effort with direct implications for how the community’s future is planned.

NEPA is expanding its monitoring of the Black River ecosystem under a coastal management programme, responding to sustained pressure on a wetland system that protects thousands of St Elizabeth homes from flooding. The morass is both an ecological treasure and a critical piece of housing infrastructure.

Over the next decade, Jamaica will remain recognisably Christian. Church buildings will still rise from hillsides. Gospel music will still…

The National Irrigation Commission maintains 237 kilometres of canals and drains across the Black River morass, protecting 34 St Elizabeth communities from flooding. It is a programme that is, in effect, a housing security system for thousands of families.

A newly commissioned amphibious excavator is cleaning and dredging the Black River Morass in St Elizabeth, providing flood relief to farming and residential communities that have been at recurring risk for decades. The investment points to deeper questions about land use, housing and the management of flood-prone areas.