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Disaster Reduction Project Launches Today

ACCORDING to the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, “everyone will be impacted by climate change.”

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No house is too small: Rainwater harvesting is key to adapting to climate change. (PHOTO: Lucius Doxerie)

The truth is whilst islands like Saint Lucia have contributed very little to climate change, they stand to suffer the most.

Like other Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Saint Lucia is highly prone to devastating natural disasters. The fragile nature of its ecosystems, coupled with limited human and financial resources, impedes its ability to recover from natural disasters. Countries like Saint Lucia also face difficulties in developing and implementing meaningful disaster‐prevention programmes.

It is against the background described above, that the Government of Saint Lucia in collaboration with the World Bank, will be launching the Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project – DVRP., this morning at Spinners in Union.

The project aims to measurably reduce vulnerability to natural hazards and to the adverse impacts of climate change in Saint Lucia.

It is anticipated that the proposed project will benefit the country’s 170,000 inhabitants by reducing the risk of failure of key infrastructure, improving overall national understanding of risk for informed decision-making, and increasing national capacity to quickly rehabilitate damaged public infrastructure following an adverse natural event.

The proposed project would also directly benefit households and businesses accessing concessional loans through the Climate Adaptation Financing Facility (CAFF), which aims to integrate climate resilience into assets and livelihoods.

The PPCR in Saint Lucia is led by the Ministry of Finance, Economic Affairs, Planning and Social Security and the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology through the Project Coordination Unit (PCU), and the Sustainable Development Environment Division (SDED), respectively.

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