Prime Minister Andrew Holness last week said that a mass relocation cannot be excluded from conversations regarding people residing in dangerous areas.

Environmental specialist Peter Espeut, in response to the prime minister’s comment, believes the Government should first provide solutions to create more suitable housing before beginning discussions about the relocation of people living in environmentally vulnerable areas.

While the leading environmental specialist does agree with Holness, he believes the first step that should be taken is to create a comprehensive housing policy which is currently lacking.

In an interview, the environmentalist shared “Before you can have mass relocation, you have to mass housing construction. Where are you going to move them to? It is the same issue as the garrison. We say we must dismantle the garrison, but where are going to put the people after you move them from the garrison.”

He continued: “So, this brings us face to face with the national problems of housing that our population has been growing faster than our housing stock.”

This request usually emerges with the onset of the hurricane season. Espeut outlined a few places across the island that tend to experience challenges as a result of the inclement weather and also mentioned that people cannot continue to live along the mangroves and waterbeds.

However, Espeut said Jamaica has never been able to build enough homes for people, especially those young, which is a possible contributing factor to citizens continuing to reside in these unsuitable areas.

Espeut also added that he believes it will be necessary to encourage people to be open to change.