Saint Lucia aims to make infrastructure more resilient against climate change

Castries, Saint Lucia: Saint Lucia has completed its Health National Adaptation Plan (H-NAP) on October 11, 2023. The plan has marked a headway of the government to strengthen climate resilience in the health sector, supported by the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) and The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) called for a multistakeholder meeting which focused on the priorities marked by the Health National Adaptation Plan (H-NAP) for climate resilience.

The meeting was hosted by the Ministries of Health, Environment and Sustainable Development of Saint Lucia under the concept “Creating a Low-Carbon and More Resilient Health Sector in Saint Lucia”, drafted by the Health National Adaptation Plan (H-NAP).

The Ministry of Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs focused on raising public awareness of the health risks related to climate change. They also suggested investing in climate-resilient health infrastructure to safeguard human well-being and their health.

Ahniyar Peralta, Project Development Specialist at the CCCCC, emphasized the development of a concept note drafted by GCF, which will help to address the national health requirements.

He called this program a transformative investment which will be helping Saint Lucia to build Climate Resilience in its health sector. This will support the country to adapt to the negative climate change, which is associated with the increased intensity of climatic disasters which affect the national health requirements and their concern.

He highlighted the three points from the H-NAP concept:

1. To spread national health awareness and enhance the institutional capacity, which will support the sustainability of healthcare facilities.
2. To empower the climate risk management.
3. To observe climate-related diseases to strengthen health systems.

Mr Peralta highlighted the advantages offered through the development of this concept. Some of them are as follows:

• To maximize its efforts to access and mobilize the climate finance
• Favours low-emission development goals
• Establishment of reliable, environment friendly and reliable. Climate-smart health care facilities.

Caribbean nationals are currently facing the effects of climate change. Consequently, it is important to make sure that the health sector is included in this national adaptation planning.

Health National Adaptation Plan (H-NAP): H-NAP aims to save human health from the impacts of climate change with the help of adaptation, resilience strategies and mitigation.

In April 2023, Saint Lucia revived the capacity of their health system through a Vulnerability and Adaptation (V&A), which marked the climate-sensitive health results. Some of them were:

– Water and food-borne diseases

– Respiratory diseases

– Vector-borne diseases

– Zoonotic disease