‘Once it rains, it means stay home’ - May Pen residents tired of flooding

As soon as the rain clouds burst, if even for just 30 minutes, Main Street in Clarendon's capital, May Pen, turns into a riverbed, and residents and commuters are calling for an urgent overhaul of the town's drainage system.

Marcia Morrison shared that "once it rains, it means stay home".

"The rain not even fall fi a hour and the whole place flood out! Once I know it's raining mi nuh leave my yard because mi know May Pen town flood out when rain fall," Morrison told THE WEEKEND STAR. "When school in session, mi sorry fi the poor pickney dem. Them get stranded and haffi wait till rain done fall fi move." She also raised the issue of possible health risks.

"The water dutty too ... . If you nuh bathe same time yuh get fungus or whole heap a bumps pon your foot and it nuh healthy," she said. When the news team was in the capital earlier this week, several scenes painted a troubling picture. Drivers refused to venture across stretches where water covered the road, afraid of hidden potholes and deep dips. One woman offered money to use a handcart to get across. Pedestrians hopped desperately from puddle to puddle, while others simply stood marooned, waiting for the water to recede.

For Winston McLean, 56, this is nothing new. He has lived in the town his entire life and said flooding has always occurred.

"But me a tell you is like it get worse because you can't find place fi walk. The rain weh fall today [Tuesday] a nuh nothing compare to the rain weh normally fall a May Pen. That's why we have the best rivers inna Jamaica. I think we get rain more than other parishes," McLean said.

"Whosoever responsible need fi fix up the town first ... find better drainage system and we start from deh so," he added.

Reports from Statin Jamaica indicate that rainfall averages in the town range between 276 and 1,515 millimetres per month, straining an already inadequate drainage system. A UN-Habitat urban profile of May Pen also identified poor infrastructure, rapid urban growth, and environmental vulnerability as key risks for the town, which sits along the flood-prone Rio Minho. Over the years, national leaders have acknowledged the problem, and in 2019, Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness promises of a comprehensive drainage master plan that included May Pen. But residents say they are yet to see real results.

Mayor of May Pen, Councillor Joel Williams said the drainage system has outlived its time.

"Most of those drains were constructed somewhere around in the [19]50's and some of them were built without steel. In those days, we would construct drains with stone walls, cut stone and so on, and very little steel. So much of those concrete drains in and around the town and on the outskirts of May Pen were built without steel and are now crumbling," he said.

"Many of them the concrete is virtually gone so you're ending up with earth drains rather than concrete drains. And so we at the municipality, before my time, I know that we have requested a drainage plan and we have been in consultation with government to see how soon we're able to get a new drainage system for the town of May Pen," he added.

He noted there has been constant flooding, especially in the Guinep Tree area and ending at Main Street, between Glenmuir Road, Howard Avenue and Manchester Avenue.

"Part of the problem is that in the hilly area of the constituency, in the last 20, 25 years, those were areas where you would have a lot of bushes. Now people are cutting down the trees, they're building houses, so you have more surface water coming down into the town," he said.

When questioned about the promised master plan announced in 2019, Williams theorised that focus had to be shifted due to the pandemic.

"So I'm pretty confident that following next week Wednesday (election day) that we will be able to pick up and to start the building out of that drainage system."