Stormwater issues become Cayman’s latest crisis
(CNS): The long-term and obvious neglect by past and present politicians, civil servants and board appointees of stormwater management appears to be no closer to being resolved than it was in the wake of Hurricane Ivan some two decades ago. As Cayman prepares for more days of heavy rain and subsequent flooding, former premier Wayne Panton has revealed the “resistance” he encountered in the backrooms of government when he tried to coordinate a national plan to tackle the problem.
Most residential areas in Cayman have been built on land just a few feet above sea level. However, the problem of flooding is now approaching crisis level due to the extent of development and the loss of natural habitats that once absorbed excess water, leaving it with nowhere to go.
The problem has been compounded by the requirement for all developments to fill land to higher levels, ensuring that older neighbouring properties are flooded.
Cayman’s climate is changing as the planet warms, which affects global rain patterns. This will likely result in fewer but more intense periods of rain here, while increasing king tides and sea level rise make matters worse.
The Department of Environment has been advising for years that a national stormwater management plan is desperately needed. Local activists, such as Sustainable Cayman, have noted the need to tackle specific areas, such as the South Sound basin, where the significant loss of mangroves to pave the way for private development has fuelled the constant flooding in that area.
Panton told CNS that the planning department and the Central Planning Authority don’t accept they have responsibility for stormwater management or drainage issues when considering planning applications. They see it as a ‘roads problem’, even though the development of land in general, not just roads, has fuelled this serious problem.
However, the government has no real plan for how it is going to manage the increasing problem of flooding, and no amount of free government-supplied sandbags is going to resolve this.
Every time land is cleared of natural habitat, especially wetland areas that have been destroyed and filled against the best advice from the DoE, Cayman loses land that absorbs water, replaced by non-permeable concrete surfaces where water collects, spills over and floods.
Panton said that in the absence of a national plan, the CPA is in a position to help in the first instance by imposing conditions on development or refusing projects that will exacerbate flooding in the communities surrounding an intended project. A policy direction could also ensure that the potential for a new development to flood existing neighbouring properties would be just cause to refuse an application.
“The CPA has wide discretion and already has the power to attach conditions to any application,” he told CNS on Tuesday, as he raised concerns that during his time as premier, his efforts to coordinate a national stormwater management system were met with not just resistance but hostility.
Panton added that he met with “resistance to any type of forward-thinking” and the problem of flooding in the broader sense “was just being ignored”. Furthermore, he said there was no indication that PlanCayman, the long-awaited new national development plan, would address the problems of flooding and stormwater management.
He said there is no sitting stormwater management committee, and despite assurances from Planning Minister Jay Ebanks that work was being done to address flooding, he saw no evidence of any coordinated effort by planning to work with the DoE, the National Roads Authority or the Water Authority to address the issue.
Ebanks told local environmental activists almost three years ago that the government was working on a storm-water management plan. However, speaking on Radio Cayman’s talk show, For the Record, last week, he said his ministry was only now looking at forming a task force to handle this latest crisis.
The minister admitted that the current pumping efforts were a temporary fix, and he was hoping to “put together a working group with the National Roads Authority, Department of Environment and others to come up with a national plan”.
Making no mention of the significant role that the CPA plays in this problem or its existing discretion powers, the minister said changes to planning legislation could be required to compel developers who are building on traditional floodplains to provide drainage solutions beyond the boundaries of their property.
However, this would do nothing to change the piecemeal approach, where each developer is left to install their own drainage system, which is wholly inadequate to avoid the developing crisis. It is now clear that the government is a very long way from implementing a full national plan based on data and science, which would have a real impact.
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Category: development, Local News, Policy, Politics, Science & Nature, Weather
This is rubbish. For many years all new subdivisions have had to provide a stormwater management plan designed under N.R.A. specifications that then has to be approved by N.R.A. and installed prior to the subdivision being registered. The C.P.A. will not sign off on a subdivision until N.R.A. has approved the installation.
Meanwhile planning approves a 85 acre housing development on swampland
Storm in a teacup
The Cayman Islands, as a territory, is in the state of total Government Failure. It won’t get any better. They simply can’t not only understand/comprehend the scale of the upcoming disaster in all critical areas- transportation, ecology, waste management, disaster preparedness and management, crumbling infrastructure, but even SEE these problems. Solving these problem is an impossible task simply because of the brain power absence at all levels of governance. And tragically, there is no one who qualifies to form and run a competent government.
These islands are doomed. There are no true leaders, brainpower and expertise.
We are all paying the price for greed and corruption at all levels of our society. One function of government is to protect its citizens but not here.
Cayman is now in its sixth decade of massive and sustained economic growth. The last half century demonstrates that Cayman is completely unwilling to plan in any way for the size of the population associated with this growth or to implement the kind of infrastructural projects and improvements it requires.
Asleep at the wheel as usual. Over development and over population is turning this island paradise into a bad dream, as its not yet quite a nightmare. Maybe thats the only time Cayman’s visionless Political class act. If i get elected at some point i assure you i would fix this island in one term.
Zero new work permits, zero new permanent residence grants and zero new Apartment/Condominium development for 8 years. After the first 4 years Caymanians, Expats and Tourist will be praising this position. CUC ridiculous contract would be terminated and any Bank found charging unscrupulous fees would be nationalized. Its time to fix this place. If you agree email, “i’ll vote to: ThinkCaymanStrong@gmail.com
LTD Da Unboozler.
How about storm shelters to population ratio since Ivan, build rating circa 1990’s, and their 2024 survivability rating? Cayman really needs to consider buying land in Honduras (or somewhere else) and flying people off the islands to a shelter there, for anything above Cat 3.
more soundbites and anti-development waffle…
what recent developments have not followed approved storm water management plans?
And yet the CPA are busy granting further development of areas where drainage problems will be exacerbated, though I am sure the ownership by the former CPA chair is entirely incidental 😉
The geniuses from WAC already have all of Red Bay dug up and looking like a war zone to band-aid their crappy water infrastructure. They could have just piggy backed some drainage pipes and some pumps in there while they were doing it.
Holland was built below sea level several centuries ago and we are too stupid or stubborn to deal with a bit of rainwater in 2024? It’s not rocket science. Just get it done.
the most true statement ive read on CNS “the government has no plan”. The only plan they have is to collect their paychecks and lifetime pension. We’re on our own folks!
Drain the swamp!
I said it before and I will say it again. Wayne should have put planning under his ministry but he came under pressure and gave it to Jay. Under Jay development is exploding and not in a good way. Jay cannot sit there and say he didn’t know this would be a problem but let us not forget that others have pleaded ignorance and got off.
As Wayne points out, there is a dirty word called discretion in the planning laws and most other laws and it depends on what mood they wake up to how this discretion is used.
It has been suggested that discretion has been used to delay or turn down Caymanians trying to do development due to political interference. I hope those on the planning board and nra board are started to squirm cause this will be made public very soon.
Wayne also correctly points out that there is nothing in the long awaited PlanCayman that addresses storm water management.
Could it be that this would step on some developers toes???
This government’s term is coming to an end and the usual we will get a team together to address it when they promised that 3 years ago.
Let us fact check – this Government is raiding the environmental protection fund to buy land. Do you really think then based on their actions they are taking this issue serious????