THE CARIBBEAN Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) has moved to reduce the effects of flooding, the most frequently experienced type of natural disaster in the Caribbean, but the least manageable by disaster offices in the region.
Jeremy Collymore, project co-ordinator at the CDERA, told The Gleaner yesterday that a Caribbean Disaster Mitigation project, focused on flood risk management, has been implemented for the region.
The project, supported by US$3 million in funding from the Japanese government, through the Japanese Inter-national Co-operation Agency (JAICA), is one of a number of ongoing initiatives being undertaken by the CDERA and will focus on four specific objectives: the strengthening and establishing of a system for flood hazard mapping; the enhancing of capabilities for community disaster management; the improving of the capacity of the CDERA as a disaster information warehouse/ clearing house; and the enhancing of the recognition of the importance and usefulness of hazard maps and disaster management plans among regional states.
Over the last 18 months in Jamaica, between the November floods of 2001 and tropical storms Isidore and Lilli last year, cumulative damage has been estimated to be in excess of $3 billion. Though damage has been mostly infrastructural, the floods have a serious impact on roads, bridges and storm drains. Citizens' homes have been affected as well.
"The direct impact on housing we have not fully assessed. You can add another several million dollars to losses of homes," said Paul Saunders, acting director general of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM).
"Apart from Hurricane Gilbert, we have never had any flood event costing us over $900 million. The bill for the November 2001 floods was somewhere in the region of $2.1 billion," Mr. Saunders told The Gleaner.
Another CDERA initiative mentioned by Mr. Collymore deals with the concept of safe housing. He pointed out that many of the housing units constructed in Caribbean communities were built by people who have no formal training in safe building principles.
"We are designing a set of community-based interventions to train people within the community who want to learn how to build safely," he said. The outcome of such an action, the CDERA believes, should be of benefit in reducing loss of housing as a result of natural disasters.
