News

The National Resilient Strategy initiated by government to reduce the effect of climate change on the island’s economy has been approved by the World Bank.

Minister for the Environment Hon. Dr. Kenneth Darroux in an interview with GIS News last Wednesday explained that a significant amount of finances will be made available by the World Bank to fund a variety projects designed to combat the effects of climate change.

He says, “In the first instance, we seek to benefit close to twenty million EC dollars but the strategy we presented has been adapted and endorsed by a number of international partners so in the long run we’re looking at probably raising somewhere in the region of 200 million EC dollars in the next two or three years towards Climate Change projects in Dominica.”

The minister noted that a project management unit will have to be created where consultants and also clerical staff will be employed to manage the fund.  Following that, officials from the World Bank are expected to come to Dominica to perform a Project Identification.  The World Bank Team will work in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Finance in identifying the different projects.

Within the Climate Resilient Strategy a number of priority areas were identified. Among them is agriculture and food security, fisheries, the tourism sector infrastructure water resource management and disaster management.

The minister says the changes in climatic conditions over the years have negatively impacted countries across the globe and Dominica is no exception.

“Over the past couple years we [experienced] erratic weather patterns, flooding in the traditional dry season and drought in the [conventional] wet season.  We also noticed some freak storms, we recall the damage done to the West Coast of the island some time last year.  All these [bizarre] weather patterns can be attributed to climate change.”