Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Organizing Against Climate Change

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CARACAS, Nov 30 2009 (IPS) - People in the farming town of Panaquire, population 7,000, founded three centuries ago on a flood-vulnerable plain southeast of Caracas, have organized in order to predict the effects of climate change through a community-based early warning weather system. “The residents have been trained in monitoring rainfall and river levels, and organized for shelter sites and facilitating access for emergency services,” Evelyn Pallota, environmental director for the northern Venezuelan state of Miranda, told Tierramérica.

The townspeople have conducted emergency drills for flooding, under the direction of 41 coordinators equipped with megaphones, flashlights, fluorescent vests and whistles donated by the British embassy.