Tuesday, January 13, 2015
THE verbal war over the planned installation of a reef protection system in Negril reached fever pitch over the weekend with Peter Knight, chief executive officer of the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), accusing the project’s opponents of waging a campaign “to mislead and confuse the public”.
In fact, Knight said the letter-writing campaign, by whom he termed “selected stakeolders”, was also designed to “denigrate the evidence-based and science-based decision” arrived at by NEPA and the Natural Resources Conservation Authority to ahead with the breakwater project.
Knight was basically responding to a letter from Jane Issa published in last Wednesday’s Jamaica Observer. Issa had said that the proposed breakwater project “would require 14 months of 24/7 hard-core construction requiring a ‘construction stage’ at the mouth of the river in the centre of town with a crane and barge”.
She also argued that breakwater boulders bring dust and debris to the location where they are being placed and would need ongoing maintenance after completion.
“They also attract algae, which will eventually smother the reef and multiply inside the breakwaters coming ashore, creating odour and contaminating the water,” Issa wrote. “Further, breakwater boulders have been known to tumble and roll during hurricanes. more
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