Landslides averted in Somerset

As part of the key activities under the European Union/Christian Aid Creating Sustainable Livelihoods Project, the check dams were constructed in the crevices of the mountainsides to prevent sand, silt and debris from coming down and covering various areas of the community. Joscelyn Brown has lived in the area for several years and is quite thankful for the check dams noting that they made a big difference in the community’s disaster management efforts. “While the rain was falling we had flooding and land slippage and there was one house that had a little damage and that was below one of the gullies that didn’t have a check dam but all the houses located in (the four) areas where the gullies had a check dam were kept safe. Nothing happened there,” he explained with relief. This time around residents in those areas only had to grapple with downed trees and JPS power lines.

The construction of all four check dams was managed by the Women’s Resource and Outreach Centre Limited (WROC), the implementing organization under the EU/Christian Aid Creating Sustainable Livelihoods Project. Three of the dams were completed in 2009 and the fourth built alongside the March Pen Gully was completed just a few weeks before last week’s testy rains. Field Officer at WROC Nkrumah Green explains that normally “deposits from the March Pen gully go straight into the hurricane shelter and the individuals living above or below the shelter would be marooned stopping them from gaining access to it.”  “Anyone who is at the top stays at the top and anyone at the bottom stays at the bottom,” he remarked.

However the community didn’t meet that fate this time around, thanks to the timely construction of the check dams which received tremendous support from residents. Green gives the community a “thumbs-up” for their volunteerism. Even the children were involved (during the summer).They helped in carrying water and so on” free of cost. Somerset resident and member of the project steering committee Vernal Logan adds that as much as eighteen residents volunteered to work on the check dams on a daily basis helping to “carry stones and when the tractor come we help load the tractor.” Overall Logan is “feeling very good about the construction of the check dams” and the impact it will have in keeping the Somerset community safe.

The community is also quite organized with the steering committee working for the overall development of the area. As part of their efforts, the committee on behalf of community members organized the collection of stones from the river, which were sold to the project for the erection of the dams. Some of the proceeds were in turn used to purchase back to school items for children in the community. Part of the proceeds will also be used to provide electrification for a container office that was provided under the project last year. Certainly one of the ongoing activities of the committee will be implementing strategies to keep the community disaster resilient.

Besides building check dams however Green insists that disaster management has to be done in a holistic way and so reforestation must be a part of the process in order to increase soil density thereby reducing the likelihood of landslides. As a result the EU/Christian Aid Creating Sustainable Livelihoods Project will be seeing to the planting of fruit trees in the area to ensure sustainability since residents are less likely to cut down trees from which they can earn.

For more information on this story send your emails to communications@wrocjamaica.org.