Editorial | Strengthen local government apparatus

When Hurricane Melissa struck last month, the natural expectation would have been for the island’s local government authorities to be quickly on the frontline, among the first responders, providing relief to people in their jurisdictions.

They were not. Instead, like ordinary citizens, the municipal corporations appeared not only shell-shocked, but seemingly without working mechanisms, or resources, with which to help people. They had to wait on the central government before they could act.

This was not surprising. What was on display was two things: decades of hollowing out of the Jamaican state and its institutions and, critically, with respect to administrative authority, the centralisation of power, and state resources, to the national government.

So, despite Jamaica’s declaration of commitment to local government and laws to give effect to the system, including the entrenchment of the idea in the island’s Constitution, that, on the evidence, is matched by a real embrace of the notion of subsidiarity: taking decisions and solving problems closer to the people they impact.

In that regard, Hurricane Melissa exposed more than inadequacies in disaster preparation and emergency management at the local level, but the shortcomings of an entire system.

The issue now to be resolved, if Jamaica believes that there is real worth to local government and that the system is worth saving, is how this is to be done.

CAPACITY-BUILDING

That can’t happen overnight. But it has to start with reversing, as this newspaper pointed out when parish councils were designated as municipal corporations, decades of institutional decay. This means capacity-building at the corporations.

It is critical to empower municipal authorities with clear roles, stable funding, and autonomy. For Jamaica’s local government not to be rudderless, a disaster-relief blueprint at the parish and municipal levels should be created and implemented. There needs to be a concrete, clearly defined plan that local authorities can activate when the next natural disaster looms. The Gleaner underlined this imperative as Kingston and St Andrew Mayor Andrew Swaby urged for updated building codes and greater municipal authority after Melissa.

The blueprint should look at:

1. A clear, legally backed mandate and funding autonomy for local governments, over which they should have control and authority. It should be able to manage disaster risk, approve resilient building codes, raise funds, and disburse relief without bureaucratic tangles and red tape and the long waits for the central government to disburse resources.

2. Continued technical capacity, staffing and training for engineers, disaster-management officers, emergency-response teams, and the provision of sufficient equipment. There should be dedicated teams to undertake mapping, drainage maintenance, shelter management, and early-warning protocols.

3. Pre-disaster infrastructure and resilience investments, which need to be beyond emergency response. These investments should be in flood control, drainage maintenance, strict enforcement of building codes, retrofitting of public buildings, and vulnerable-community planning. All these should be guided by climate-risk projections. This reiterates The Gleaner’s urge to emulate best practices among small island developing states (SIDS): hazard mapping, resilient infrastructure, early warning and community-based risk reduction.

4. Community engagement and local-level disaster committees need to be revitalised. There needs to be, regular and public education exercises, funds allocated to coordinate evacuations, upgrading shelters, warehousing for relief storage and distribution.

5. Transparent recovery and relief management protocols need to clearly defined, and publicly available – the people should know who does what, when and how. A localised plan must map roles, resources, timelines and accountability.

6. Inter-parish coordination mechanisms and a central-local linkage put in place, wherein mutual-aid arrangements, shared equipment, pooled resources, regional cooperation under a national framework – via the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) or equivalent agency – must be activated to respond when multiple parishes are affected at once.

7. Regular review, drills and updates – annual or biannual disaster drills, community awareness campaigns, and updates to hazard maps, building codes and resource inventories must be institutionalised.

CLEARLY DEFINED PLAN

This newspaper, while acknowledging the outpouring of international solidarity and private-sector generosity, has also stressed that goodwill alone cannot replace structured, systematic planning. It is a no-brainer that, without a clearly defined plan, any subsequent storm will only result in chaos, and avoidable suffering.

Jamaica’s geography and climate make it particularly vulnerable to inclement weather conditions which result in floods, landslides and rises in sea level. Learning from the resilience-building efforts of other SIDS is a necessity. Jamaica needs to invest in resilient infrastructure, early-warning systems and long-term planning.

If local governments remain disempowered, underfunded or sidelined, recovery will be piecemeal at best, chaotic at worst. Every rebuilding effort will be an uneasy patchwork stitched together, only to dissipate when the next disaster strikes.

In contrast, a disaster-relief blueprint gives communities effective recovery mechanisms, speedy response and, critically, hope to disaster-affected people. This can transform local government and their agencies from being passive bystanders to frontline defenders. It is imperative that recovery from Hurricane Melissa also becomes a catalyst for rebuilding governance.