ONLY ONE of the nine countries that had agreed to implement the 2010 Model Comprehensive Disaster Legislation had done so. Jamaica, the only country to enact the new legislation, is followed by British Virgin Islands.
Executive director of Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency Ronald Jackson said, however, he was unclear on how much progress Barbados had made with the legislation.
“I can’t say where each country is in the process. I know that they [Barbados] are in the nine considering the law,” said Jackson.
Jackson, who called for a change in approach to disaster management in the region, said: “I am going to be very frank here. I think that across the region the issue of disaster risk management is not enough of a priority, not at the level of the population itself. That then translates into how governments prioritise the issue”. (LK)
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