Savanna-la-Mar Market left to the tide

Western Bureau: 
With no formal plan in place to relocate or permanently rehabilitate the Savanna-la-Mar Market in Westmoreland, vendors displaced by Hurricane Melissa continue to bear the brunt of flooding and increasingly high tides that regularly inundate the low-lying coastal area where the facility is located.
Heavy rainfall last week once again left sections of the temporary vending area under water, disrupting business for vendors who have been operating from the market’s car park and adjoining roadways since the market was closed after last year’s hurricane.
Savanna-la-Mar Councillor Julian Chang said the situation has worsened in recent months as high tides increasingly push seawater into the town.
“The market has been closed since the hurricane, so the vendors are in the car park and on the road. But now the tide has become very high since recently, especially in the evenings. The tide comes up as far as Brooks Plaza and debris is everywhere,” she told The Gleaner.
According to Chang, vendors have been left with few options as floodwaters continue to affect their makeshift selling areas.
“They have no choice. They are already in the streets selling and now the drains are overflowing, worse with the high tide. It’s just a sad situation there right now. We need help in Savanna-la-Mar,” she said.
Chang added that she was unaware of any long-term strategy to address the recurring problem.
Meanwhile, Savanna-la-Mar Mayor Danree Delancy said the market’s location along the coastline makes it increasingly vulnerable and argued that relocation is the most viable long-term solution.
“The minister (Desmond McKenzie) came to a conclusion that the market needs to be relocated,” Delancy told The Gleaner. He noted that despite significant sums being spent to restore the market following Hurricane Beryl, Hurricane Melissa again devastated the facility.
He said the effects of climate change are expected to make conditions worse.
“What you are seeing currently, with the seawater coming and backing up, that will eventually get worse. Bear in mind that the town of Savanna-la-Mar sits at some points below sea level. And now, with global warming getting more and more prevalent, so to speak, we are going to be seeing more effects from high tide along the coastline down there. And that will continue to affect the market,” he said.
While locations including Llandilo, Paradise and Chantilly have been suggested for a new market, Delancy admitted that no formal study has been undertaken to identify a replacement site, despite relocation being a longstanding discussion within the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development and the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation (WMC).
“It’s dependent on whether [the Ministry of Local Government] is willing to relocate the market. Because if we’re not willing to relocate the market then we will come up with all sorts of excuses… . Once there’s the real will to find a location, it can be done and will be done,” he said.
Delancy, however, rejected suggestions that no work is being done to improve drainage in the town.
“Actually, as I speak, work is going on. We have [done work] in the town of Savanna-la-Mar itself; about a $3.5-million drain cleaning project [is] currently under way,” he said, adding that drains surrounding the market would also be cleaned as part of the programme.
He also confirmed that the market is insured but declined to comment on any potential insurance payout before consulting the corporation’s finance personnel.
Meanwhile, an official from the Westmoreland Health Department confirmed that a public health inspector was dispatched yesterday morning to assess conditions at the market following the flooding.
The official said any public health intervention would be determined after the inspection report is submitted.
For now, however, vendors remain caught between an unusable market, temporary roadside stalls and a coastline that continues to encroach on one of western Jamaica’s busiest commercial hubs, with no formal timeline for either relocating the market or permanently addressing its vulnerability to flooding.
mickalia.kington@gleanerjm.com