Christopher Burgess | Cut delays, cluster high-value projects for NaRRA success

Compared with leading regional and international examples, Jamaica’s post-Hurricane Melissa reconstruction is already behind.

Accountability within the initial five-year reconstruction window should mean moving urgently on projects that promise to deliver the greatest social and economic returns.

We learnt after Hurricane Gilbert that delays are dangerous. Eighteen months after Hurricane Gilbert, JIE engineers and Canadian experts concluded that the Government had lost an opportunity to replace vulnerable informal housing, and that “people had rebuilt previous vulnerabilities”. We are facing the same challenge now.

Accountability is not simply about preventing misuse of funds. It is also about ensuring that Jamaica receives competitive social, economic and resilience returns.

Reconstruction accountability requires urgency because delays postpone potential gains.

NaRRA said it should get going with reconstruction by October 2026. But that is relatively late compared with successful reconstruction programmes. China established and mobilised its post-Wenchuan Earthquake machinery in 2008 within two weeks, while New Zealand’s Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority began logistics and operations in two months. For Jamaica, serious reconstruction is unlikely to begin until well into the second year after Melissa.

Unlike Gilbert and Ivan, when funding was a major constraint, Melissa’s greater constraint may be the availability of skilled labour and the lack of coordination. Based on my analysis, these labour- and coordination-related delays could impose an additional loss of US$2.4 billion in GDP over the next decade through deferred gains.

Reconstruction delays are already evident in schools in Westmoreland, St Mary and St Elizabeth, with skilled labour shortages being cited as a major cause by the Ministry of Education. Government must rally available skilled labour, training and technology to expand human capacity. Where is HEART in this reconstruction effort?

For example, China’s reconstruction of Sichuan Province after the magnitude-8 Wenchuan earthquake focused on investment in technology, earthquake-resilient housing and infrastructure. Through its provincial pairing system, China mobilised skilled labour. According to the UN, within three years China built 6.6 million homes, roads, water supply systems, and hundreds of health facilities and schools, while strengthening government capacity. The World Bank noted: “Compared with pre-earthquake level, GDP grew between 117 per cent and 198 per cent.”

The lesson is that an early and concentrated package of high-return projects must be matched by sufficient skilled labour and engineering capacity to deliver reconstruction quickly.

Accountability requires minimising further delays and the losses they create.

HIGH-VALUE, HIGH-RETURN PROJECTS FIRST

Accountability must also extend to how reconstruction funds are invested. Every major NaRRA project should be prioritised based on its estimated contributions to resilience, social returns and productivity.

Investments in the education and health sectors enhance and protect human capital. Flood control and coastal protection reduce recurring losses. Strengthening municipal corporations would improve governance and disaster response in the future. Investments in these sectors have high economic returns.

Delaying school reconstruction risks permanent loss of human capital. In May 2026, principals of Newell High School and New Forest High School in St Elizabeth warned that some students may enter the workforce and never return to school, reducing Jamaica’s long-term productivity.

Smart housing also generates substantial economic returns when integrated with secure titles, resilient construction and energy efficiency. Titles formalise household wealth and expand the land-tax base. Concrete homes protect belongings and energy-efficient homes increase disposable income. With demand for over 30,000 affordable homes across western Jamaica, and considerably more islandwide, housing reconstruction should be treated as productive capital and not simply shelter expenditure.

Similarly, utilities and tourism suffered significant downtime and losses after Melissa. NWC lost billions of dollars partly from the lack of electricity, and hotels likewise lost operational time. The devastation of the Paradise Park Solar Farm in Westmoreland, which had achieved the lowest electricity-generation dispatch rate of less than nine cents per kilowatt-hour, was disturbing. Standby power for water plants and dispersed renewable energy sources can harden these sectors and lower national energy costs.

Social sectors, smart housing and resilient utility investments can generate returns exceeding five times the initial investment and should be prioritised. Major NaRRA projects should undergo independent assessment of economic, social and resilience returns, with the results made public.

ECONOMIC CLUSTERS

Reconstruction accountability should also prioritise projects clustered in areas and programmes that reinforce each other.

Kingston Public Hospital and the Hermitage Dam provide opportunities to test whether major investments can anchor complementary projects that increase economic returns. Is a reimagined KPH an anchor within a stronger supporting health-referral system? And will the rebuilding of the Hermitage Dam be accompanied by a reduction in non-revenue water through the replacement of known aged and leaking mains, so additional stored water is not subsequently lost through the distribution network?

International experience supports clustering or programme- and area-based approaches. Indonesia’s earthquake-reconstruction community-based project built 15,000 homes in less than two years and cost less than contractor-built housing, based on a World Bank report. Likewise, Christchurch coordinated more than 600 infrastructure projects through a single public-private delivery programme and received a positive assessment from New Zealand’s Auditor-General. Clusters are more efficient than isolated projects.

NaRRA could cluster agriculture and housing projects in the St Elizabeth breadbasket, tourism and utility strengthening on the north coast, and community development across the west. From Black River and Darlaston to Savanna-la-Mar and Negril, reconstruction could integrate land regularisation, smart housing, schools, hospitals and commerce, rather than treat each as an individual project.

The Government took relatively long to bring the NaRRA Bill to Parliament and then rushed it through, arguing that it needed broad and sweeping powers to accelerate reconstruction. Shortly afterwards, JAMRROC was formulated to provide oversight. Yet since May, we have seen neither fish nor fowl.

Despite skilled labour shortages and bureaucracy, reconstruction must get under way. Major projects should be independently assessed, with priority given to high-return projects and economic clusters before further delays create additional human-capital and economic losses.

Dr Christopher Burgess is a member of JAMRROC. He is a registered civil engineer, vice-president of the Jamaica Institution of Engineers, climate scientist, land developer and managing director of CEAC Solutions.