Development & Aid, Environment, Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean, Poverty & SDGs

CARIBBEAN: Natural Disasters Endanger Development Goals

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Jun 9 2005 (IPS) - In the Caribbean, the destruction wrought by natural disasters poses a serious obstacle to the fulfilment of the Millennium Development Goals established by the United Nations, acknowledged U.N. experts in Cuba.

“It has been demonstrated that natural disasters dramatically affect the economies of this region,” Margherita Vitale, director of the Caribbean Risk Management Initiative (CRMI), told IPS.

Vitale pointed to the example of Grenada, where the passage of Hurricane Ivan in 2004 caused an estimated 889 million dollars in damage, an amount equivalent to more than double the small island nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2003.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by the international community in 2000 include reducing extreme poverty and hunger by one half, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, reducing maternal mortality by three quarters and infant mortality by two thirds, and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

The specific targets set as a means of achieving these goals are supposed to be met by the year 2015, with proposed reductions based on 1990 levels.

A report prepared by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) noted that the effects of this devastating hurricane will continue to be felt for many years by Grenada’s economy.

An estimated 89 percent of the island’s housing was destroyed, while the industries hardest hit were specifically those that contribute the most to the Grenadian economy: tourism and agriculture.

Almost 90 percent of the total losses provoked by the hurricane correspond to direct damage, while the rest stem from the impact on the production of goods and services, notes the ECLAC report.

In more general terms, the report added, last year’s hurricane season – which runs from June to November – caused over 2.1 billion dollars in losses for the Caribbean region as a whole.

“In Grenada, there was practically not a single building left untouched, and the impact on the development goals is dramatic,” remarked Ulrika Richardson-Golinski, the deputy resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Cuba.

Both Vitale and Richardson-Golinksi stressed that there has been an increase in natural disasters in the Caribbean region in terms of both frequency and intensity, which leads to the need for efforts to boost the response capacities of the area’s nations.

“Risk reduction is as important as disaster prevention, and relates to agriculture, housing, the environment, land use and many other sectors,” noted Richardson-Golinski.

As an example of strategies to minimise the risks posed by natural disasters, she mentioned the use of more resistant materials in housing construction, along with building homes in less vulnerable locations. In the case of lengthy droughts, on the other hand, coping mechanisms include the use of irrigation systems and crops adapted to a limited supply of water.

Richardson-Golinski noted that efforts like these are a means of making more efficient use of donor funds. “Investing to reduce the risks posed by natural disasters is a way of protecting development projects,” she said.

In order to strengthen national and regional capacities to mitigate risks in the event of natural disasters, representatives of Caribbean basin nations have agreed to create a risk management network.

The agreement forms part of the Havana Initiative, adopted by representatives from the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) at a conference for national authorities on risk management policies, systems and experiences in the Caribbean, held earlier this month in the Cuban capital.

“The network is part of the CRMI, and the goal is to gather together the different initiatives and projects already underway in the Caribbean under a single umbrella,” explained Vitale, adding that disaster risk management is a priority for the U.N. system as a whole.

One of the main outcomes of the World Conference on Disaster Reduction held January in Kobe, Japan was the decision to strengthen regional communication and cooperation to achieve a more effective response to natural disasters.

Among the documents adopted at the conference was a declaration on the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami disaster, aimed at reducing the risk of future catastrophes.

The mission of the CRMI is to build capacities in the Caribbean region to more effectively manage and reduce the risks associated with natural, environmental and technological hazards, particularly within the larger context of global climate change.

Its initiatives are carried out through the UNDP offices based in Cuba, Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica.

Reports from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) stress the urgency of addressing socio-economic and environmental vulnerability in all future planning for sustainable development.

A 2003 UNEP Latin American regional report emphasised the need to place priority on the poor, who are generally the hardest hit by natural disasters, given their greater vulnerability and more limited possibilities for recovery.

Vitale noted that one of CRMI’s objectives is to particularly lend assistance to the countries of the region with the most serious problems at the institutional level and the weakest capacity to confront extreme events. These countries include Haiti, which is highly vulnerable to tropical storms, flooding and other disasters.

“We take the differences in development levels into account, and we know which countries need more support. Here in Cuba we have spoken with the Civil Defence authorities, and they are prepared to participate in a cooperation project in Haiti,” she reported.

According to the forecasts of Cuban experts, the 2005 hurricane season will once again be especially intense throughout the entire area made up of the North Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, with 13 tropical storms and hurricanes predicted.

The reasons for this upsurge in storm activity include the absence of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon during at least the next four months, and the notable rise in sea temperature throughout the entire tropical section of the Atlantic Ocean, including the Caribbean Sea.

It is believed that at least one of the hurricanes predicted could pass through Cuba, whose early warning and disaster prevention system is one of the most efficient in the region.