UNESCO undertakes water-related disaster management exercise in Saint Lucia

Castries, Saint Lucia: UNESCO will be facilitating a Water-related Disaster Reduction Workshop for knowledge sharing and capacity development in the Water-related Disaster Management Ecosystem in Saint Lucia from December 5-6, 2023.

The workshop will be held at the Harbour Club Hotel, Rodney Bay, Gros Islet. The aim is to bring together local stakeholders involved with disaster risk reduction, management and mitigation with technical experts to support local priorities.

Notably, this will support in strengthening their capacities to manage water resources in the face of hazardous climatic scenarios.

It is to be noted that this workshop will smooth the way for the Saint Lucia Water Resources Management Agency (WRMA) and the UNESCO Science Sector Programme within the UNESCO Office for the Caribbean.

Saint Lucia invited the Media to provide coverage of the opening of the Water-related Disaster Reduction and Management Workshop on Tuesday, December 5, from 9 am at the Harbour Club Hotel in Rodney Bay, Gross Islet.

Effective disaster management and mitigation are essential to the resilience of Caribbean Small Islands Developing States (SIDS), and they will allow for response that reduces the impact of water-related disaster risks.

Notably, it is crucial to explore Early Warning Systems, develop specific tools, and support capacity building as a means of accessing climate adaptation pathways to address the impact of climate on water resources within the region and, in particular, Saint Lucia.

Water-related hazards or hydro-hazards are the results of complex interactions in the ocean atmosphere-land process cascade. Therefore, floods and droughts are expected to increase due to global warming.

Increased hydro-hazard impacts and costs are related to factors such as increased event frequency and magnitude, degradation of ecosystem services, inaccurate public perception of risk, unplanned urbanization, and vulnerable livelihoods.

UNESCO stated that this challenge requires identifying appropriate and timely adaptation measures in a continuously changing environment.