With its low-lying coast containing an abundance of agriculture, sometimes all that stands between Guyana’s food security and the fury of the ocean is the seawall. And after a review of the situation, the United Nations has urged Guyana to intensify its climate change fight.
This is contained in the publication Climate change and human rights: contributions by and for Latin America and the Caribbean, released recently by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
According to the publication, Guyana was one of only a few countries in the region to not make any climate change recommendations. Cuba and Haiti top the list for the number of recommendations they made and received.
Guyana did receive one recommendation and it was a crucial one. According to the publication, Guyana should “continue and intensify programmes aimed at mitigating climate change negative impacts on food security and environment, and share the experience gained in this field with interested countries”.
The publication also tied climate change and energy with gender equality. According to ECLAC, Guyana should review its climate change and energy policies, especially those related to the oil and gas sector, in order to develop a disaster risk reduction strategy.
ECLAC noted that this strategy should consider the negative effects of climate change on gender equality and the lives of women and their families. This, it was noted, should especially focus on those in the danger zones, that is, areas below sea level.
“The Committee also recommended that Guyana include a gender assessment in all environmental impact assessments and establish a mechanism to monitor the implementation of those assessments and to guarantee that rural and Amerindian women can fully contribute to the development of the country,” the report states.
According to ECLAC, this should include them being able to “give their free, prior and informed consent before any development, business, agro-industrial or extractive projects affecting their traditional lands and resources are initiated, whether carried out by national or foreign enterprises, (and to ensure they) can take advantage of adequate benefit-sharing agreements and are provided with adequate alternative livelihood”.
The organisation’s recommendations to Guyana come after the UN’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which is done every four and a half years on the basis of a national report from the country being reviewed. Also taken into account during the review were contributions from the UN and information presented by relevant stakeholders including civil society.
Over the past few months, the country has had to deal with climate change close up after flooding in Mahaica in October saw more than 300 acres of rice being destroyed and hundreds of acres being put under threat of destruction by salt water. In addition, livestock was destroyed and properties sustained damages.
Besides the destruction of acres of the rice crop itself caused by the water, it had been reported that the flooded land was no longer suitable for rice production since the soil composition had become too salty.
In the case of the sea defence at Dantzig, Mahaica, salt water from the ocean flowed onto the land when it was breached. Residents reported that the water impacted livestock, rice fields and vegetable farms. Persons in residential areas were also affected.
Checks by this publication on the affected areas weeks after several villages were first inundated revealed that persons were still losing livestock and the area is plagued by mosquitoes.