In view of the urgent needs of Caribbean islands affected by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, the CARICOM-UN High-level Pledging Conference held in November managed to mobilise a broad partnership to support reconstruction efforts, including through more than US$1.3 billion in pledges and over US$1 billion in loans and debt relief.
The Caribbean Community (Caricom) Secretariat has reported that support was given from nearly 400 high-level representatives from governments, multilateral and civil society organizations, and the private sector gathered at UN headquarters with the Secretaries-General of the United Nations and the CARICOM to help countries “build back better,” as the first climate-resilient countries in the world.
As stated by Caricom Secretary-General Irwin LaRocque, “The magnitude of reconstruction will require significant levels of financing, which we are unable to generate on our own. Countries are highly indebted, with limited access to financing due to their middle-income status.” The Donor conference, organized by Caricom with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is therefore viewed as a very timely and necessary intervention to help countries get back on track with their developmental aims.
Recovery costs surpass US$5billion, according to the latest needs estimates. In some cases, the impact is 3.5 times countries’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP); for example, in the British Virgin Islands. The principal economic sectors of tourism and agriculture have been significantly affected, according to assessments made public during the conference.
According to Caricom, climate-vulnerable islands were decimated, like Barbuda, the smaller of the two-island state of Antigua and Barbuda; and Dominica, with deep social, economic and environmental impacts. Other severely affected islands were Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, The Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands. Haiti and St Kitts and Nevis also suffered damage. St Martin as well as Cuba and the Dominican Republic were impacted, in addition to Puerto Rico.
According to the latest post-Irma assessment, in Barbuda, damages surpassed US$130 million, with recovery needs of over US$220 million. Similarly, the tourism sector, which is crucial for Antigua and Barbuda’s economy, accounting for nearly 60 per cent of GDP, was severely affected, bearing 76 per cent of losses.
Also, in Dominica, Hurricane Maria decimated decades of development gains, impacting over 200 per cent of the island state’s GDP. Poverty levels risk rising above 60 per cent. Nearly 60 per cent of damages relate to housing and transportation infrastructure, with recovery costs estimated at around US$1.3 billion.
The pledges and other forms of support garnered as a result of the donor conference will certainly go a far way in helping the hurricane-ravaged countries recover from such massive damages. However, as the rebuilding process picks up pace, it is crucial that countries “build back better”, to ensure that they are resilient to climatic effects.
It is a fact that the world has become a more dangerous place for its inhabitants, who are becoming more vulnerable to disasters. Natural disasters result in years of development efforts often being wiped out in days, or even minutes; as we have seen in the Caribbean recently.
Here in Guyana, we are seeing a dramatic rise in the construction of buildings and other infrastructure, with most of it occurring in the coastal areas of the country. This is so despite the fact that our entire coastland is threatened whenever it rains excessively, or in cases of extreme high tide; the 2005 floods readily come to mind. One can only hope that the authorities are monitoring the situation to ensure that the appropriate building codes etc are being adhered to.
The lessons to be learnt from what occurred recently in the Caribbean are many. The underlying one is that we must always seek to build smart.
Experts have predicted that more frequent and extreme weather linked to climate change, like hurricanes and severe flooding, will occur more often. While we cannot prevent natural disasters from occurring, we can certainly prepare better, so that the impact is reduced. Surely, the decisions we make today will determine our long-term resilience to natural hazards, and be critical to people’s well-being in the short and long terms.
