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If Jamaica is to rise from the trauma of Hurricane Melissa with dignity, confidence, and purpose, we need one place—one exemplary space—that shows what our future can look like.

Not imagined, not promised, but built. The Villa Verde Zone of Old Black River (VVZ-OBR) is meant to be that space: a small, manageable, fast-track demonstration project that can be completed within fifteen months and replicated across the island.

Jamaica cannot be rebuilt in that time. But a well-crafted, people-centred, climate-smart district can. It can provide hope, direction, and evidence that competent, transparent reconstruction is both possible and beneficial.

Villa Verde Zone: Its purpose as a living model for Jamaica’s recovery

The VVZ-OBR is designed to achieve three purposes simultaneously:

A. Protect and restore the natural assets that protect us

The mangroves, riverbanks, wetlands, and coastal buffers of Black River saved lives during Melissa—yet they are degraded and shrinking. Restoring them within VVZ-OBR is not “environmental beautification”; it is national defence.

This zone will therefore demonstrate mangrove replanting, riverbank stabilisation, wetland rehabilitation, water quality monitoring and nature-based flood and storm-surge protection.

In a climate-volatile Caribbean, ecology is infrastructure. The VVZ will show Jamaica how to build with nature instead of against it.

B. Revive heritage and civic pride

Black River is an elegant old town whose grace has faded with time. The Villa Verde Zone will restor historical facades, riverfront walkways, civic squares, small museums and community craft and performing spaces.

This is not nostalgia; it is economic strategy. A town that honours its past becomes a magnet for visitors, investors, and its own returning diaspora. People spend money in places that feel alive, beautiful, intentional, and safe.

C. Build a modern climate-smart micro-city

The VVZ-OBR will embody the Jamaica of the future: Solar micro-grids with battery storage, rooftop rainwater harvesting, resilient community shelters, elevated, flood-resistant housing prototypes, shared workspaces for youth and small entrepreneurs, e-mobility hubs (bikes, scooters, small electric shuttles) and local food markets and small-business incubators.

This district becomes a school, laboratory, business hub, and community home all at once.

The design of the Villa Verde Zone: A hybrid of heritage, ecology and enterprise

The chosen identity for the VVZ—heritage, ecology, and community-centred renewal—must be reflected in its layout and architecture. The zone should not feel artificial; it must feel like a natural extension of old Black River’s historical charm, river culture, and ecological richness.

A. Heritage Quarter (‘Old Black River Reborn’)

This includes restored 19th-century wooden and brick structures, a riverfront promenade with shaded seating and local food kiosks, restoration of old street patterns, lighting that highlights the architectural history, and cultural storytelling panels and murals celebrating Black River’s past.

This quarter becomes a centre of civic pride and economic life.

B. Ecological & Climate-Science Corridor

Located along the river and mangrove edges, this corridor will include a small Mangrove Research & Education Centre; birdwatching decks; canoe and river tours operated by local young people; signage explaining ecosystems and climate resilience; and rehabilitated wetlands as public learning spaces.

Partnerships with UWI, UTech, and international researchers will bring credibility and academic value.

C. Community & Enterprise Hub

This area will hold an SME incubator; a shared creative space for artisans, designers, and digital workers; training classrooms for climate adaptation, agriculture, energy, and trades; a youth entrepreneurship centre; and local food markets and micro-retail stalls.

This is where jobs and skills will flourish for regular residents, not only for professionals with degrees.

3. Social and economic renewal through the VVZ-OBR

The Villa Verde Zone must deliver people-centred benefits so that ordinary Jamaicans see and feel the results.

A. Livelihoods and youth yraining

Training programmes launched inside VVZ-OBR should include renewable energy installation and maintenance; environmental restoration trades; construction of resilient housing; digital literacy and online work skills; eco-tourism guiding; culinary and hospitality micro-enterprises; small business accounting and marketing.

The zone becomes a skill factory, not just a physical development.

B. Health, well-being and trauma recovery

Hurricane Melissa inflicted invisible wounds—fear, anxiety, grief, and loss of community cohesion. The zone must provide community counselling, youth healing workshops, elderly social support gatherings, parenting resilience circles, and art, drumming, movement and cultural therapy programmes.

We cannot rebuild structures and leave people broken.

C. Education and schools

Black River’s schools must be fortified and culturally integrated into the VVZ: climate-resilient redesigns, digital learning rooms, vocational labs linked to VVZ economic clusters, partnerships with universities, and safer school shelters with backup power.

A school inside or near the VVZ can become a regional resilience high school, demonstrating how education must evolve.

4. Housing renewal within and beyond the VVZ

Housing must be addressed honestly. Jamaica’s coastal settlements include many unsafe, unregulated structures built out of necessity rather than design.

Inside VVZ-OBR

A small number of resilient housing prototypes can be built to demonstrate: elevated flood-resistant foundations, energy-efficient design, affordable modular construction, emergency shelter integration, and integrated rainwater systems.

These prototypes are not “show houses”; they are models of what Jamaica must standardise.

Outside VVZ in wider Black River

The zone can support community mapping, fair relocation planning, grants and low-cost financing for repairs, builder training for safer techniques, and public-private partnerships for social housing.

Again, the VVZ is not an end in itself. It is a teacher for the entire parish and the wider island.

5. How VVZ-OBR fits into the national recovery

Jamaica is not asked to rebuild the entire island in fifteen months. That is impossible and unwise.

But what can be done in that period is restore essential services, reopen most schools, re-establish primary health operations, stabilise electricity, support small business revival, expand trauma and psychosocial services, lay the foundation for long-term climate resilience and complete a demonstration district that the entire country can emulate.

The VVZ-OBR therefore becomes a symbol of possibility, an instruction manual, and a prototype for national reconstruction.

Once the zone is established, similar “Villa Verdes” (or their customised equivalents) can be launched in:

• Savanna-la-Mar
• Port Maria
• Annotto Bay
• Lucea
• Port Royal
• Lionel Town
• Morant Bay

Each adapted to local culture, landscape, and history.

6. Community ownership: The heart of success

No reconstruction—however elegant or scientific—will succeed unless residents feel ownership, dignity, and belonging.

The Villa Verde Zone must therefore be co-created with local church leaders, fisherfolk associations, school principals, youth clubs, small business owners, local historians, craft vendors, taxi operators, farmers and market vendors and persons with disabilities.

This prevents alienation, resentment, and the familiar accusation: “Dem build dat fi tourists, not fi wi.”

Instead, VVZ-OBR becomes: Black River’s pride. Black River’s work. Black River’s contribution to Jamaica.

7. A blueprint that can travel across the nation

The power of the VVZ-OBR lies in its scale (small enough to complete quickly), its clarity (ecology + culture + enterprise), and its replicability (any coastal town can adopt the template).

This district will prove that: mangrove restoration works; renewable micro-grids stabilise communities; heritage revitalisation attracts enterprise; youth training accelerates recovery; transparent governance earns trust; and Jamaica can build beautifully, quickly, and honestly when it chooses to.

Melissa left Jamaica shaken. The Villa Verde Zone can help us regain our footing.

• RELATED: From ruin to renewal | A call to national resolve, new vision for Black River (Part 1)