Flooding exposes Jamaica’s poor planning and environmental practices
Three days of heavy rains associated with a trough caused chaos and disaster in many parts of Jamaica between May 14 and 17, 2017, raising burning questions over poor planning and development, badly designed and inadequate drainage systems, and Jamaicans’ continued careless solid waste disposal practices.
As Jamaicans start to pick up the pieces, the government has much work to do in counting the cost of the damage — including a review of the island’s arrangements with the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility, which is the first multi-country risk pool in the world, designed “as a regional catastrophe fund for Caribbean governments to limit the financial impact of devastating hurricanes and earthquakes by quickly providing financial liquidity when a policy is triggered.”