In the coastal parish of St Thomas, Jamaica, a sharp public dispute has erupted over the persistent, destructive flooding plaguing the Port Morant community, with a sitting parliamentarian leveling heavy criticism at a senior official from the country’s National Works Agency (NWA).
Rosemarie Shaw, the Member of Parliament representing St Thomas Eastern, issued a formal statement Thursday calling out NWA Communications Manager Stephen Shaw for downplaying the ongoing crisis by framing it as an unavoidable outcome of natural rainfall. The MP pushed back hard against this framing, emphasizing that recurring flooding in Port Morant is not an unforeseen new problem—it is a long-documented, cyclical issue that successive administrations have failed to resolve.
“Flooding here is not a surprise. We have known about this problem for decades, and for years local residents have watched their homes, livelihoods and transport links get ruined over and over again,” Rosemarie Shaw said in her statement. “Blaming rain does not fix broken infrastructure. It just exposes that the system is stuck reacting to emergencies instead of proactively solving the root cause. Mr. Shaw’s job is to communicate with the public, but empty explanations can never take the place of taking real responsibility for fixing this crisis.”
The MP outlined the severe daily impacts the unaddressed flooding has inflicted on Port Morant: residential properties are inundated again and again, local businesses are forced to lose critical income amid repeated disruptions, and key road networks have become unsafe, often completely impassable during and after rain events. Most notably, she raised urgent alarm that recent infrastructure upgrades carried out in the parish have not alleviated flooding—they have actually made the problem worse, and this troubling claim requires immediate, independent review.
To move toward a resolution, Rosemarie Shaw has laid out three clear demands for the NWA. The agency must first publish a detailed, time-bound action plan to address the flooding. Second, it must open a transparent, public review of both existing drainage infrastructure and all recently completed works to identify what went wrong. Finally, the agency must deliver a permanent, long-lasting drainage solution that protects Port Morant and its surrounding neighboring communities.
For the MP, this fight is not just about fixing drainage—it is a matter of fundamental government accountability to voters. “The people of Port Morant do not just want regular updates on the problem. They want to know why, after decades of waiting, this issue still has not been fixed,” she added. “Until that question gets an answer in the form of concrete action, the status quo remains completely unacceptable.”