Former Barbados Minister of the Environment Liz Thompson has sounded a warning to Barbados and the Caribbean to address environmental issues critical to the region’s social and economic development.
Speaking at the 21st biennial conference of Soroptimist International of the Caribbean Network at Accra Beach Hotel, Thompson zeroed in on natural resources such as water and oil, noting that countries like Barbados and The Bahamas were among the “most water-scarce and water-stressed” in the world, ranking with sub-Saharan Africa.
She predicted issues of access to water, its affordability and development were going to dominate this century, while noting that international and multinational corporations were already buying rivers, lands with virgin territory and “good water resources” in Alaska and other places around the world, because they recognized this.
“We cannot use our natural resources at a rate faster than they can be replenished, nor can we use our environmental capital without counting its cost,” Thompson warned.
The Barbadian, who now serves as United Nations assistant secretary-general and executive coordinator of the secretariat for the UN’s Conference on Sustainable Development, outlined a wide range of environmental challenges which she advised threatened to effectively derail the Caribbean’s development prospects.
She believed the increasing cost of food, fuel and water in small island developing states such as those in the Caribbean with small populations and a small economic base threatened to push those states to a point where the populations could not afford those costs.
“Under the Single Market and Economy . . . there are mechanisms through which we can harmonize policy and develop common approaches to these problems.
