Environmental research

The main problems are related to water gushing down the hillsides unchecked causing significant damage in the lower part of the community and huge land erosion, slippage and damage to homes. This problem has been left uncheck for many years and JTFA has been for the past five years working at rectifying the problem piece by piece with gabion baskets. The need to complete the conversion to alternative energy at the JTFA Building to ensure the sustainability of the community services offered there by adding solar panels and batteries to the already existing hybrid system installed 2009/10 thereby increasing our capacity generation and storage to meet our needs and reducing our exposure to JPS and the ever increasing price of electricity; plus complete the retaining wall at the JTFA Building and secure the perimeter of the building which now serves as the community hot spot. We must construct a 10 x 12 mushroom shed and a 4x16ft covered compost platform for the organic farm site as we do not have the necessary type of facility to breakdown sufficient material for the 5 acre demonstration plot. Finally we have some areas off of the main road which are extremely dark and intimidating which need lighting to improve security in these four areas. Post disaster assessment and assistance is critical for our community along with improved community awareness prior to bad weather and communication directly after an event especially when the cell sites are down. Our project aims to improve the safety and security of the resident in our community, this intervention would be the final piece in the puzzle for controlling water from Top Road down to Wallingford in conjunction with our other activities. The major benefit would be the stability of the hillside by control of the water through a cleared channel fitted with suitable checks to slow the water flow preventing wholesale movement and erosion which is currently damaging the homes, the bridge and the road. A minimum of five homes have already been condemned because of this problem. Through the project the group will promote green energy with the installation of four solar street lights at the most vulnerable dark spots in the community, and increase the hardware in our alternative power system by eight panels and batteries to secure the future of the services we offer to the community; multimedia centre, hot spot for internet access and community radio as well as under pin the fragile agro processing work we are doing there too. Grantee will produce a series of six programmes to be aired on the community radio to promote good practises with regard to land erosion and climate change and pay particular attention to water harvesting for the resident at the top of the hill. We will form a disaster committee for the wider community staffed by six key personnel from all areas of the community attached to the JTFA executive, each armed with CB radios for times of peril; the group will also keep a cache of specific equipment to assist in the work at our central location and these persons will be trained over a period of a year in risk and damage assessment and shelter management. Also, the group will complete the retaining wall surrounding our building and secure the site with fencing, construct the compost bed and mushroom shed at the organic farm site to improve efficiency at compost making and add the opportunity of another income generating activity.

Jamaica