The Jamaica Beach Birthright Environmental Movement (JaBBEM) has called on the Government to halt the China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) development in Mammee Bay, St Ann, which is a watershed area. “China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) has started clearing the Roaring River Watershed to put 850 homes, and must be stopped,” JaBBEM President Dr Devon Taylor told The Gleaner . He said CHEC has commenced the destruction of part of the Rio Bueno watershed on the Roaring River Estate in St Ann to build an oversized luxury housing development based on environmental permits (2022-06017-EPP00339; 2023-0617-E00037A-C; 2023-06017-EP00136), which was granted by the Government.
“We are calling on the Government of Jamaica, once again, to halt this project in the Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) (of Dunn’s River Falls in Mammee Bay, St Ann), listen to the environmental defenders and the Jamaican people in the interest of social and environmental justice by relocating this development elsewhere,” Taylor said in a release Tuesday evening. When The Gleaner visited a section of Mammee Bay on Tuesday, heavy-duty equipment was seen on a section of the land, with a small area already bulldozed. The Gleaner was unable to get a comment from CHEC.
THREATS TO WATERSHEDS Earlier this year, communities in the immediate project environment vociferously rejected the proposed development at the developer’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) meeting, and subsequently sent numerou.