PRESS RELEASE-The OECS Secretariat will host a three day workshop on Hydro-Climatic Disasters in Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) from July 8-10, 2014 at the Conference Room of the National Emergency Management in Bisee, Castries, Saint Lucia.
The workshop will be delivered by Dr Paulette Bynoe, Director of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Guyana. Dr Bynoe is also a specialist in the areas of community based disaster risk management, climate change adaptation policy, and environmental management.
The training was identified as critical for the water sector in Saint Lucia, particularly given that unpredictable weather patterns are already negatively impacting water availability and quality on the island.
WASCO is expected to be a major beneficiary of this training, as it seeks to enhance its own management systems to improve the delivery of water services on the island.
Speaking ahead of the workshop, Justin Sealy, Strategic Planning Manager at WASCO, told the OECS Secretariat that the training will focus on “providing WASCO planners and the wider water sector with valuable information that will facilitate disaster mitigation and adaptive measures in reference to hydro-climatic disasters affecting the country’s water resources”.
As far as possible, personnel working in the area of water management need to fully comprehend the climatic implications on water resources, and “the effort required to adapt or mitigate its effects” Sealy noted, adding that “an integrated delivery mode of training will facilitate cohesiveness within the water sector”.
During the three day workshop, participants, who will be drawn from various government agencies working in water resources management, will be exposed to the key principles of IWRM and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), the implications of climate change and variability for water resources management; policy, legislation institutional and requirements needed at the community level to facilitate DRR in IWRM; the economics of disasters and emergency response issues.
Over the last 18 months, the OECS Secretariat through funding assistance from USAID has been assisting the local water company with strengthening its resource capacity through the provision of a computer based mapping technology (also known as GIS) and training of personnel, in order to improve its network management and service delivery.
The assistance to WACSO is part of the OECS-RRACC project, which is focused on helping Member States build resilience to climate related stresses in vulnerable sectors, such as water.
“We are more than delighted to provide support for this training” says Rupert Lay, Water Resources Specialist, of the OECS Secretariat. “The training is consistent with the overall goals of the climate change demonstration.