The Tribune

By LARRY SMITH

A FEW years ago I attended a meeting where a government planner displayed some startling maps. They showed the areas of New Providence that would be severely affected by storm surge flooding from a direct hit by a major hurricane.

A category three storm would heavily impact the airport and Lake Killarney area, the entire south coast (except for Clifton) and major over-the-hill housing areas. A category five storm would flood the entire island, except for the coastal ridge running from Clifton to East End and the central ridge running from Marathon to Lake Cunningham.

“These maps show the potential risk areas from a major hurricane strike,” the planner explained. “But they also demonstrate that we don’t have good high land to build on, and the land that is available now is not desirable.”

One of the lowest-lying areas of the island is Pinewood Gardens, a housing estate just north of the Malcolm’s Creek wetlands on the south coast. This area’s poor drainage has been made worse recently by “indiscriminate dumping and encroachment” as well as blockage of direct access to the sea.

In 1972 Pinewood Gardens was subdivided into 3500 lots with roads and park spaces reserved. The principal behind the development was a foreign investor named Robert Petrie. When Petrie’s company went into liquidation, the subdivision was acquired in 1983 by Arawak Homes, headed by former politico Franklyn Wilson.

The Pinewood area – and other eastern districts – received more than a dozen inches of rain over the 24-hour period beginning on Tuesday afternoon (May 21). To put that in perspective, over the same period, a total of 4.35 inches of rainfall was recorded across the entire island. And between 1981 and 2010 rainfall on New Providence was less than 5 inches on average for the entire month of May.

The Met Office issued its first severe weather alert at 3:15pm on Tuesday, warning of thunderstorms, wind gusts, lightning and tornadic activity. Out east, the storms ramped up very quickly, with almost continuous heavy rain until the next day.

At 6pm the Met Office warned of “moist and unstable weather…for the next 24 hours”. There was no mention of flooding, which affected thousands of people living in congested inner city neighbourhoods, some of whom had to abandon their homes. Meanwhile, ZNS complained that NEMA’s office was closed on the night of the storm and – strangely – the government made no official statement in the days after the disaster.

This is something we cannot figure out. It’s incumbent upon the leadership of any country to take account of serious events that negatively affect large numbers of citizens. Not only that, it is just plain political good sense. The prime minister should have appointed Pinewood representative Khaalis Rolle to oversee matters from the political perspective, while broadcasting an early statement on the storm aimed at reassuring the public.

But in reality there is not much that can be done about the flooding – too much of New Providence is just too low lying. People are being allowed to build in these areas and it will only get worse as sea level rises. The best solution is to restrict construction in extremely low-lying areas.

Traditional drains don’t work when there is no relief to exploit. Drainage wells do work but there has to be enough head to drain the water, and they have to be serviced regularly. Extreme tides can also reduce the head to the extent that the wells do not work.

Several studies have been done on this issue, but the solutions other than deep drainage wells are considered too costly. These usually require collection systems with a system to pump the water to another location where it can be disposed of.

A drainage canal to the sea at South Beach has also been proposed. But apart from the huge cost (including the acquisition of existing land and houses), this would also be a two-edged sword, since high tides, storm surges, and rising sea levels could make the problem worse without expensive flood barriers.

“There are no practical solutions to places like Pinewood Gardens,” one engineer told me. “Lots of Holland is below sea level but they live on clays that keep the sea out of the protected areas. Our limestone is far too permeable and as sea level rises it will come up under our feet. Areas like those around Lake Killarney will be totally submerged as sea level rises, which poses a real threat to our wonderful new airport”.

Recapping the Causes of Crime & Disorder

People are more and more depressed at our skyrocketing crime rate and level of moral depravity. One can sense a growing hopelessness because of the poor economic conditions combined with the absence of any serious efforts at social reform by credible leaders.

But looking around this depressed landscape, with people crying hysterically on almost every street corner, you would never believe that the causes and progress of the country’s social breakdown have been fully documented over the past 20-odd years by a series of special reports commissioned by the government.

They have included the 1984 commission of inquiry into drug smuggling and the task force on drug abuse, the 1994 task force on education and the consultative committee on youth development, and the 1998 national crime commission.

What did that last report conclude? Well, the commissioners (a judge, a psychiatrist, a criminologist, social workers and clergymen) warned that Bahamian society was threatened by “a pervasive culture of dishonesty, greed and a casual disregard for social norms and regulation.”

Four years earlier, the education task force had pointed to a “deterioration of traditional values and accepted standards of behaviour”, which had produced “the scourge of teenage pregnancy and substance abuse.” And previous reports had detailed the rise of lawlessness caused by widespread narcotics trafficking and collusion with organised crime.

The 1994 national youth report – chaired by Anglican prelate Drexel Gomez along with other clergymen, police officers and youth leaders said indiscipline, materialism and low self-esteem among young Bahamians had the potential to cause a social “catastrophe”. It seems we are about to live through that prediction now.

The Gomez report listed high population densities in Nassau, too many bars and liquor stores, squalid neighbourhoods, limited recreational opportunities, education failures and the fact that single girls were having too many babies as the chief factors shaping the behaviour of our young people.

According to the experts, these factors had contributed to a rise in domestic violence, a decline in social responsibility and work ethic, a lack of national pride, more lifestyle diseases like alcoholism, AIDS and obesity, and rising levels of criminality. In other words, a culture of raging self-indulgence.

“Roaming youth, especially on New Providence, went on rampages, damaging property and inflicting harm. There was a growing tendency to use guns or knives to settle scores and access to guns was increasingly easy,” the report said.

“Failure to educate students about life issues including the natural environment, social responsibility, moral duty and cultural heritage was seen as contributing to the aimlessness of youth and their uncertainty about identity...An entrenched class of underachievers existed...A government job was preferred.”

The 1994 report concluded that fundamental social reforms were needed, as well as better public education, and more youth training and job programmes. The issues are the same today.

Stamping out gang warfare in the schools and providing more extra-curricular activities for bored students were considered vital. Alcohol and drug abuse were acknowledged as major contributors to school underachievement, and the Broadcasting Corporation was urged to focus on more appropriate youth programming.

The report added that young people were also products of their physical environment, and called for proper zoning and urban planning to avoid the decay of neighbourhoods throughout the Bahamas by creeping commercialisation. And politicians were urged to provide “visionary leadership” based on personal integrity and public accountability. Sound familiar?

That was 14 years ago. Four years after that, the national crime commission was appointed amid growing fears that New Providence was on the verge of “social collapse”. Led by Chief Justice Sir Burton Hall, this panel found that the Bahamian family was fast disintegrating into a pit of domestic violence and sexual abuse.

“We are reaping the rewards of our own inabilities, inattentiveness, incompetence and indiscipline,” the report said, “the seeds of which were sown many years ago...Commissioners are left with the impression that most crimes, of all types, are the product of greed, not need.”

Again there were strident calls for the media to re-examine their perceived role as purveyors of gratuitous violence, promiscuous sex and double standards. Commissioners strongly supported the transformation of ZNS into a socially responsible public broadcaster along the lines of the CBC or BBC.

Gang activities had become more of a problem in the four years that had elapsed since the youth report was published. In 1998 the commissioners referred to the deployment of gang members by political parties to disrupt the activities of opponents. And there were fresh allegations of this sort of dark alliance during the 2007 and 2012 elections.

The commissioners agreed that there was a direct link between the physical squalor of our communities and other forms of anti-social behaviour. They called for an environmental court to deal with illegal dumping and littering, as well as the regulation of roadside garages and street vendors – considered destinations for stolen vehicles and produce.

The 1998 report also exposed some of the more blatant hypocrisies of Bahamian life, pointing out a few “striking examples of how the public gets agitated about certain types of crime while many of that same public are complicit in other crimes.”

Those examples included the high level of theft among hotel employees; the money lost by businesses at the hands of customers, employees and suppliers – much higher than the losses due to armed robbery; the theft of funds by charity and church workers; and the damage done to our primary producers by the widespread stealing of crops and livestock as well as fishing boats and gear.

There were also the now familiar calls to fix our judicial system – by providing new court facilities and administrative improvements – and for even and consistent law enforcement, with more police presence in critical areas like Bay Street. Bahamians tolerated a culture of lawlessness, the report said, as demonstrated by the popular numbers racket and the wholesale flouting of traffic, environmental and street vending regulations.

One key recommendation was the formation of a permanent non-political advisory body to act as the ultimate oversight authority on critical social issues. This citizens’ council was finally appointed in 2007 to offer practical proposals for crime control. Members include clergymen, social workers, policemen, and business representatives. But have you heard of this commission since then?

Clearly we need a strategically organised and strongly led response to pursue the advice contained in these reports, or the celebration of 40 years of independence will be utterly meaningless.

What do you think? Send comments to larry@tribunemedia.net

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