WALKER and DOWNERLeonardo Blair, Staff Reporter
HOTELIERS IN the north eastern section of the island who have marketed the area as ideal for ecotourism have expressed concerns that the proposed expansion of roads under the North Coast Highway Improve-ment project expected to begin in Drapers, Portland, in 2005 may disrupt the parish's allure to nature loving tourists.
Pointing to the cutting down of several old trees and the infringement on wetlands to prepare for the widening of some roads under the project, Barbara Walker, chairperson of the Port Antonio chapter of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) and co-owner of the Mocking Bird Hill Hotel in the parish, says something has already gone amiss in the project which was expected to follow environmental guidelines.
"If already, we have this (degradation of environment) it doesn't augur well for the future. One hundred-year-old trees are being cut down," she charged. "The NWA (National Works Agency) has set out very detailed environmental protection guidelines for the work and we just want to ensure that the guidelines are followed to a 'T'."
Ms. Walker told the The Sunday Gleaner last week that while Environmental Impact Assessments had been done for sections of the project stretching as far as Ocho Rios in St. Ann, hoteliers had not yet been presented with an EIA for the impact of the work going through Drapers.
"We are trying to promote green developments in Portland. If we start removing trees, we are lessening the scenic beauty," she said.
She said the road needed to be properly fixed so there was proper drainage but without it being widened.
"We love the curves to keep the traffic slow," she said explaining that the road development would affect the local members of the community.
SELF-SERVING DISTRACTIONS
Several of those local residents have, however, dismissed the concerns of hotel interests as self-serving distractions from what they charged was the real issue hoteliers wanting to maintain a monopoly on tourists coming into the area.
"I don't see the big deal for a handful of people who don't want Portland to be developed," said Andrea Millera resident in the area for the last 57 years. "Dem nuh care 'bout we. A when since them start care 'bout we? Them only care about we pickney them fi come work in them hotel. As far as local people concerned, them only want to use local people and a talk like them interested," she said.
Several residents confirmed that members of the Port Antonio chapter of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) and their supporters streamed through the community last Sunday seeking signatures for a petition to stop the widening of the road.
"Anytime you start something, it is hard. But if development is to take place, it must take place. We are having too many foreigners coming here and setting up businesses and telling us how we must run our country. Look at how they just come here and fence off all the beaches. What is left for the people now? We can't even see the beach anymore," said Mrs. Miller.
She said the hoteliers have been holding meetings without the input of the local people.
"If they were interested in us they would have invited us to the meetings but they think that we don't have any sense so they stay in their little groups."
Ms. Walker however has dismissed allegations that JHTA members were seeking support through a petition to stop the widening of the road last week.
"We have a petition but we haven't gone public with it yet," said Ms. Walker. "Two of our members (one of whom is an architect) were out there last week but they were merely measuring the road and have agreed that the road can be fixed without any widening. We don't want the road to be widened because it will make it too fast and we don't want that."
Despite the opposition to the widening of the road, residents maintain however that it will bring new opportunities to Drapers.
"I don't think it's going to really destroy the environment. It will be easier for the tourists to drive here when the road is wide. The only concern I have is for the children who may be affected, because the children in country are not like the children in town (Kingston)," said Evelyn Downer a resident of the area.
Percival Stewart, who said he was a contractor with Cable and Wireless, and who was doing preparation work on a section of the road just outside Boston, Portland, assured The Sunday Gleaner last week that: "We are working according to our measurements laid down by the environment people and the Cable and Wireless people."
When The Sunday Gleaner contacted the National Environment and Planning Agency last week representatives there said they were not sure whether and Environmental Impact Assessment was done for the Drapers leg of the project and would have to check their files. There was no further word up to Friday afternoon.
Name changed by request
