Locals’ livelihood hit hard by Blue Lagoon stalemate

Private owners of the lands surrounding the national heritage site, the Blue Lagoon, have rebuffed a request to construct critical infrastructure at the world-renowned attraction, a stakeholder group has charged.

The request was reportedly made by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT), the state agency charged with the preservation, promotion and development of the country’s cultural heritage.

An application by the JNHT to have the infrastructures constructed along the parochial road leading to the Portland-based attraction has also been rejected by the Portland Municipal Corporation (PMC), the agency confirmed.

The Blue Lagoon, which was declared a national monument in August 2018, was ordered closed in August last year for several reasons which threatened it viability, according to authorities.

These include potential health hazards due to the absence of sanitary and waste management facilities and escalating disorder among local artisans seeking to capitalise on the international fame of the attraction, as well as its reputed therapeutic benefits.

The infrastructure JNHT is proposing to construct include sanitary facilities and an administration booth to regulate activities at the attraction.

But six months after the closure, the roadblocks set up by the JNHT have left the reopening of the Blue Lagoon in a quandary and a trail of “devastation” for local artisans who depend on it to support their families.

“They are at a stalemate and it’s a stalemate of their own doing,” said Devon Taylor, president of Jamaica Beach Birthright Environment Movement (JaBBEM), an advocacy group that is seeking to safeguard the rights of citizens to enjoy the national monument and attraction.

Taylor was critical of the JNHT, saying it is clear the agency did not do its homework “to understand the technical issues they were up against” before the decision to close the Blue Lagoon.

“There are several properties, a multitude of real estate, [around the lagoon] and the Government of Jamaica does not own an inch of it …even the watershed area that is supporting the lagoon, none of it is controlled by the Government of Jamaica,” he charged.

“They entered into a project without being proactive about what they were up against. They did not think about what they owned and controlled and what they could do in the space.”

Lorna Bailey, director of public education and public relations at the JNHT, acknowledged that the agency was aware that the lands surrounding the Blue Lagoon are privately owned and that this was the case before process to make it a national monument commenced.

“The JNHT is in negotiation with one of the private entities,” Bailey told The Gleaner last Friday in response to the claim that private landowners have refused a request by the agency for permission to construct sanitary and administrative facilities at the attraction.

“The re-opening of the site is our priority therefore, we are expecting to conclude negotiations in short order,” she added.

Taylor and other stakeholders say they were told the attraction would be re-opened in two months.

Noting that the Beach Control Act 1956 allows the landowners “and their friends” to continue enjoying the use of their property, Taylor suggested that the government use its legislative power to acquire the lands around the Blue Lagoon national monument for the benefit of all Jamaicans.

“They can do similar to what they do when they are building the highway,” she said.

The initial plan for the reopening of the Blue Lagoon was based on the utilisation of the parochial Blue Hole roadway for the construction of safety and sanitary structures “due to the fact that there is no land available for use by the JNHT”, the agency said in a statement on Friday.

The roadway is owned by the PMC.

But the JNHT said a proposal and an application submitted to the PMC were rejected because no designated parking space was included.

Further, the agency said the municipal authority was not in support of a proposal to erect a guard house and portable toilets on the roadway.

DEFENDED

Mayor of Portland Paul Thompson acknowledged that he was not aware of the specific reason the proposal and application from the JNHT was refused, but defended the decision of the PMC’s planning department.

“The planning department has all right to refuse any application if there are breaches or if they are not satisfied with the location,” said Thompson, who is also chairman of the PMC.

“If they refused an application, there must be good reasons,” he added while insisting the PMC is “very interested” in seeing the lagoon re-open with the requisite facilities to meet the standards required for a tourist attraction.

Thompson suggested, too, that the JNHT’s application would not have been approved by the local health department mainly because of spacing concerns.

But amid the uncertainty about the re-opening of the Blue Lagoon, the economic fall-out for the various artisan groups have been “devastating”, according to Collin Beckford, president of the Blue Lagoon Alliance of the Sea.

The group consists of nearly two dozen rafts-men, craftsmen, boat operators and fisher-folk who have gone from the security of a couple thousand dollars daily to sometimes nothing at all.

LOT OF HUNGER

“Most of the members are going through a lot of hunger … because we no have any opportunity no more fi make money. That was out livelihood,” said Beckford, who holds a coxswain licence and has been a raftsman and a craftsman for 35 years.

“I was able to school my daughter from primary school to university without any student loan,” he said, disclosing that his daughter now works overseas for the Government of Jamaica.

Daryl Campbell, 24, another certified raftsman who operates JamaicaToursBy_Illis, is powerless to halt the demise of the business he struggled to build that helps him to take care of his six-year-old son.

Campbell said through his social media accounts he still gets calls from customers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and other countries who want to experience the thrills of rafting on the Blue Lagoon, but has to turn them away.

Now, he is uncertain what his next move will be, especially since, according to him, there is not much economic opportunities in Portland.

“It gone dung yah man, everything mash up. Me no have no other job, this is the only thing me do. A just savings me a live off and right now everything almost done,” he said.

“When dem tek away a gem, a national monument like the Blue Lagoon that have so many young people coming around to earn a bread … when you take that away what you expect them to do?” he questioned.

He warned that some will fall into criminal activities because “we don’t have any community centres or other places like that where we can go”.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com