Dear Editor,

The south coast highway, having mauled the citizens of St Thomas and left them for dead, is now creating its fair share of misery in Bull Bay.

With the road surface being prepared for paving, it seems water is springing up everywhere. The National Water Commission (NWC) is being blamed for this situation, but I believe they are not the ones placing half-inch PVC pipes under roads that carry trucks with heavy loads.

So now calls are being made for the NWC to step in to fix the leaking water pipes that it did not install. In defence of the NWC, it should not be a party to this since it knows better than to use small PVC pipes to cross main roads. Oversight is completely missing at the project manager level, and it is a free for all for freeloaders who need to connect to free water.

On to another matter. I previously enquired about the plans for the areas the new road is cutting and carving up, but I was ignored in true sideshow fashion. Now we see a concrete median placed in the roadway with occasional openings for motor vehicles to make U-turns or enter communities, and it seems, pedestrians. But this is not the garden variety concrete barrier, it is the same as those used on roadways with high-volume, high-speed traffic and will not be kind to the less dexterous who want to cross the road. So the Bull Bay community is now split in two, and I hear we should not complain because we will be “getting a beautiful road”.

The next highlight of the construction is the absolute disregard for pedestrians who have been left with nowhere to walk in the area, and in perpetual dust. It seems no provision was made in the contract to either protect the pedestrians or restrict the dust. So much for public safety.

In addition, no signs are being posted to indicate to motorists the areas of the road on which to drive while the roadwork is in progress. As the project continues and new areas of unfinished road are used to move traffic, one is left to guess which path to use.

Having resigned myself to the inevitable destruction of Bull Bay as a community, I am no longer angry, but despondent. My position is hopeless, and to ask for understanding and competence from the Government is a futile undertaking.

Both political parties have established themselves as the new colonial masters and the ministers of Government the new backras. Who knew that this would be the fate of a former slave society, perhaps the British when they left. They must be cheering in Westminster, having proven the inability of black men to govern themselves.

I expect an election in the near future as money is being spent on large social infrastructure projects, and once again we will be tasked with voting for either “black dog or monkey”, the best that money can buy. What a condition!

The Jamaican Government is no longer relevant to the Jamaican people. And anyone saying we deserve what we get should remember the various revolutions in the world. It is never too late for change.

Hugh M Dunbar

Architect

hmdenergy@gmail.com