The massive flood of 1998 that swept one of the island’s beloved calypsonians out to sea, while he sheltered in his home, and severely damaged several houses in the district of Weston, St James, prompted the government to amend the 1950s flood prevention legislation.
However, on Tuesday in the House of Assembly, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Works, Santia Bradshaw told the Lower House the 1998 amendment was reactive, did not go far enough and had some loopholes that affected the legislation’s effectiveness.
With the introduction of the Storm Water Management Bill 2025, Bradshaw told the House: “This particular Bill that I’m introducing today adopts a more comprehensive approach towards storm water management and it recognises that storm water management is an essential component of overall water resource management. It recognises that you have to incorporate the elements of mitigation and adaptive response strategies . . . if you’re going to get serious about dealing with storm water and the fact that climate change is no longer a distant threat.”
Outlining that many of her parliamentary colleagues consistently complained about flooding in communities such as Ashdeane Village, Goodland, Atlantic Park, Dover in Christ Church and Trents, St James, Bradshaw said the proposed legislation was a comprehensive response to many of the challenges the ministry faced in addressing flooding and drainage management.
“[There are complaints about] infrastructure that has not been fixed, where they have experienced blockages in relation to persons encroaching in areas where there are water courses or even within our gullies . . . . The flow of water is in many cases being obstructed because other people have done things that have caused that obstruction which then creates another problem for people,” she outlined, while providing background to the legislation that imposes fines for new offences and gives the chief technical officer additional powers.
The St Michael South East Member of Parliament outlined: “This particular Storm Management Bill is needed to address these critical areas and to ensure that we are able to integrate flood plan management, address the issues of pollution control, and obviously allow ourselves to be able to have a governance structure that allows the entities tasked with carrying out these important functions of overseeing storm water to be able to do so with the teeth that is required by law.”
(IMC1)
