Flood Lessons Pt 2 – Maintenance of Gullies and Drains

No country can deal with the water that is generated from significant amounts of rains such as what happened with tropical storm Nicole.  However with proper foresight and planning one can mitigate the effects of such disasters.  It may surprise you to know that one of the causes of damage to gullies is road improvements.  Many roads have been upgraded over the last thirty years including the expansion to four or more lanes and may also include the provision of drains.  The problem is that all of the rain water is diverted into the existing gully structure exceeding the capacity and resulting in damage to the infrastructure.  I am not aware of any work that has been done to widen existing gullies or to put in existing gullies.  This causes particular problems for those gullies that do not have concrete walls as the overload of water causes land slippage.

The second area of damage to gullies is caused by persons who throw heavy objects such as stoves, fridges, etc. into the gully.  These items damage the bottom of the gully and when the rains come they are washed away doing more damage when they crash into the sides of the gully. Items in gullies and drains can also block the passage of water resulting in overflows and flooding of areas. Once again there is a need for stricter enforcement of rules which forbid the dumping of garbage into the gullies and drains.

The damage done to gullies is compounded by the lack of adequate resources to monitor and repair them.  Attempts are made to patch the problem areas but the first heavy rains expose the weakened areas.  Most of our gullies are over fifty years old and have deteriorated over time.  They may look fine on the surface but are severely weakened underneath.  In the event of an earthquake happening in Jamaica I am not confident that the walls of the gullies will not collapse.

The network of gullies is critical for the removing of water from our streets and taking it out to sea.  Yes the cost of maintaining the gullies can be high but the cost to repair damaged ones is much higher.  The only way that we can mitigate the effects of flood waters on gullies and drains is to maintain them on a regular basis and to enforce the rules of dumping.  To ignore the problem will not make it go away; it only takes one storm to remind us how vulnerable we are.