No access, no point - Wilmot fears beach development may dispossess public at South Haven

For Jamaica’s public beaches, development of restroom facilities, eateries and other amenities can allow for greater enjoyment of the beloved natural resource. But as communities grapple with the realities of beach management, some Jamaicans fear that the cost of that development is their free access.

According to professional surfer Icah Wilmot, retaining free access to the beach is his top priority.

“If you can’t get to the beaches, then it doesn’t matter if it’s clean or not,” he quipped.

Wilmot, who has represented Jamaica internationally in surf competitions, frequents beaches on the southeast end of the island. He says South Haven beach in St Thomas, known to community members as ‘Makkas’, is one of the favourite spots of the local surf-fraternity.

“The waves are really, really high quality at Makkas, so it’s one of our favourite surf spots, even though it has the rocky coastline.”

He continued: “Because of the rocks on the coastline and in the water, when you look out there, under the water there’s no sand, its just all big boulders, and the coastline has quite a bit of sea urchins living in the rocks. So there are people from that community that come down to that beach and sit on the sand, but no one really goes into the water for swimming there.”

Like Mezgars Run and Retreat, two other public beaches in the parish, South Haven boasts nothing but an access point. The Beach Access and Management Policy of 2018 defines public (beach) access as the ability or opportunity to reach, pass through, or utilise the beaches or foreshore (of Jamaica).

At these locations, there are no amenities or any signs of human intervention on the beach, save for the garbage left behind by beachgoers and a sign at Retreat beach indicating that it is managed by the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA).

When asked whether his experience at South Haven would be improved by the addition of amenities, Wilmot said, “Yes, that would be good, but [there’s] an issue I know would happen. ... A lot of beaches I know that get bathrooms and changing rooms put in, because there’s cost to maintain those, those beaches are then subjected to cost for access ... . That is the main issue that I would say happens to a lot of the beaches in Jamaica; they get more privatised.”

While NEPA, which houses the Beach Control Authority, has not announced any plans to develop or privatise any public beaches in St Thomas, Jamaica Beach Birthright Environmental Movement (JaBBEM) – an advocacy group lobbying for universal rights for Jamaicans to access all local beaches – believes that fearing development will revoke the public’s access is a justified response.

“I agree with that assessment, because it’s not an assessment. It’s the lived reality of the Jamaican people,” JaBBEM President Dr Devon Taylor began.

“A bathroom is not development, y’know, and not every beach needs a bathroom. The concept that the Government is pushing, that you have to have a bathroom and all these amenities on beaches, is not true. Some of these spaces, yes, you may want some of it, but you don’t need it on every one of them. That’s not the way how beaches are on the planet. Is not every beach in every developed country have a bathroom on it. So that idea is an idea that is used to actually do something else, which is dispossession.”

Taylor stressed that access should be free.

“We are paying a lot of tax in Jamaica and the tourism industry is driving billions of dollars. Take some of that money and make sure that our beaches still remain free. We don’t need to pay to go to them,” he said.

While the current state of South Haven beach does not hinder Wilmot’s use of it, he said: “If you can get to the beach, then yeah, the next step would be to put the steps in place to maintain [it]. Maybe a lot of beaches that are well used by communities [can develop] a community development plan, where the community manages the beach ... as opposed to just bringing in new people.”

Agreeing, Taylor maintained that providing amenities at a beach should not come at the cost of access.

“It’s not that it’s either or either,” he said, referring to the choice between access or development. “Not all beaches need a bathroom on it, but if you’re going to put a bathroom facility on a beach, I don’t think it’s going to be a costing that breaks the budget. ... So [we reject] these false choices that are being presented to us, that because we’re going to put a bathroom there, the public must pay.”

shanel.lemmie@gleanerjm.com