GIVEN AN increase in drought conditions throughout the Caribbean, rationing water should be part of any management strategy in the region.
Against the background of an extended dry period affecting the region this year, executive director of the Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), Ronald Jackson, said rationing must be a focus because climate regime suggested that there was going to be reduction in overall rainfall in the region and water was going to be even more important.
Jackson said water reuse and recycling was not a norm in the Caribbean, but was done in many other territories to combat dry conditions.
“I think Barbados, as well as most of our territories, if not all, need to begin to explore that particular strategy and how they’re going to incorporate it in the future . . . Within the context of Barbados where we’ve seen a significant dry season, there is every possibility that we will see more of these kinds of solutions as we look at strategies for rationing and managing the water,” Jackson said.
He was speaking yesterday at a Press conference to mark the start of the 2014 hurricane season, and noted that CDEMA promoted all hazards and integrated risk management strategies and did not only focus on hurricanes.
Pointing to the prolonged drought which forced authorities in Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia, Jamaica and St Vincent and the Grenadines to introduce water rationing to cope, Jackson said the region was still not doing a good enough job of calculating and tracking the impact of drought and dry season on our respective economies.
”It’s one of those areas that I think we need to be able to capture when we look at our various macro-economic pictures. It is impacting us significantly when you look at season over season, and the impact on specific industries such as agriculture and even the increased cost to provide water supply to tourism and health, which is a high user of water within the region,” Jackson stated.
The last prolonged drought period was 2009 going into 2010 and Jackson said they would be able to compare this year to then when the period ended.
“It’s been a significant dry period as far as I see, and what the evidence is showing thus far,” he said.
Jackson said CDEMA and the Caribbean Institute of meteorology and Hydrology were working together to strengthen programmes within the individual countries, in terms of enhanced planning for dry seasons.
“Hopefully this will help the countries to better budget and plan for the dry season when it comes along,” said Jackson.
Now that the rains are starting to come in, Jackson said people must be vigilant with the move from the dry period to the rainy season. He explained that the surface areas are dry and compacted, and flash flooding could occur and that people would need to take the necessary precautions. (YB)