News Releases

Caribbean talks water security

For Release Upon Receipt - September 25, 2013

St. Augustine


ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad & Tobago – Facing a future whose only certainty is change, small island developing states (SIDS) are confronted with many problems and difficulties – some intrinsic and timeless, others extrinsic and new – in making progress towards sustainable living and sustainable development. – United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) 

The 1994 Barbados Plan of Action recognised the particular vulnerability of SIDS to global climate change, as populations, agricultural lands and infrastructures tend to be concentrated in coastal zones. This means that any rise in sea level will impact significantly on island living conditions and economies.

In an effort to improve Caribbean SIDS’ water security, the Climate Change Adaptation Strategies for Water Resources and Human Livelihoods in the Coastal Zones of Small Island Developing States (CASCADE) project hosts stakeholder meetings in St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines on September 25 and 27, 2013.

The two-year project, awarded under the 10th European Development Fund by the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) Secretariat, has as its lead The University of the West Indies (UWI) St. Augustine Campus with the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) and Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC) as its partners. The project adopts an inter-regional geographic focus, with a research action that targets primary activities in the Caribbean, which is also “scaled-up” to small islands in the Pacific. St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines will constitute the core sites for study, with Grenada and the Pacific’s Mauritius constituting two mirror cases.

CASCADE focuses on designing and promoting multi-stakeholder climate change adaptation in the water and sanitation sector in SIDS with an aim to improving human livelihoods. The wider objective of CASCADE is to place SIDS further down the path of sustainable development. The development of generalised adaptation strategies for water management in SIDS will, therefore, facilitate the provision of a policy toolkit that can assist communities and public officials in other small island states with adaptation measures for the water sector. Additionally, by highlighting research attention on climate-related impacts in the particular context of SIDS and climate-related impacts, it is envisaged that the project will contribute in a sustainable sense to public attention and global research focus on this recognised subset of developing countries.

According to CASCADE, mapping an effective path to water security requires the incorporation of both the managers of the resource and the users. In addition, effective management needs to reflect the interconnectedness between the users at different levels. Stakeholder panels will be established to provide general support to the project, but in particular, stakeholders will share information on existing and planned uses for the resource including the governance structure; contribute to the development of the adaptation strategies for water management and community-based action plans; and support the development of a community of action for adaptation approaches in the core sites.

The stakeholder panels will consist of persons from the water, tourism and agriculture ministries of the core islands, coastal communities, civil society and the private sector. The panels will be constituted for one year, with two face-to-face meetings, webinars and interim consultations/interactions via D-group and social media.

Ms Sharon Lindo of the CCCCC and two representatives from at The UWI St. Augustine: Ms Marina Modeste of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies and Dr Michael Sutherland of the Faculty of Engineering, will facilitate these meetings. 

For more information, log on to the project website: http://www2.sta.uwi.edu/cascade/.

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About The UWI

Over the last six decades, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged University with over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest and most longstanding higher education provider in the English-speaking Caribbean, with main campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Centres in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Christopher (St Kitts) & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. UWI recently launched its Open Campus, a virtual campus with over 50 physical site locations across the region, serving over 20 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean. UWI is an international university with faculty and students from over 40 countries and collaborative links with over 60 universities around the world. Through its seven Faculties, UWI offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Pure & Applied Sciences, Science and Agriculture, and Social Sciences. 

(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.) 

For the latest UWI News, click http://sta.uwi.edu/news.

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