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  • 1 year ago
Ministers responsible for water resources from the Region have made a decision to refer to climate change as a climate crisis. It forms part of the Declaration of Port of Spain which they have now signed.


Meanwhile, an update has been provided on smaller desalination plants the Water and Sewerage Authority plans to acquire.


Alicia Boucher has the details.
Transcript
00:00The issue of climate change has been pushed to the forefront this year at the 33rd Caribbean
00:08Water and Wastewater Association Conference and the 20th High-Level Forum for Water Ministers
00:14for which the Declaration of Port of Spain has been signed.
00:19Minister of Public Utilities Marvin Gonzalez says similar challenges are being faced in
00:23the different jurisdictions and collaboration is key.
00:27As a matter of fact, at this conference we have decided that we are not going to refer
00:31to it as climate change, we are going to refer to it as a climate crisis that we are currently
00:35battling.
00:36So we are in a climate crisis and we are working together to ensure that we build that level
00:41of resilience and protect our people.
00:43A decision taken in the declaration which has now been agreed to by regional counterpart
00:48ministers responsible for water resources from Guyana, St. Lucia, Nevis, Belize, Barbados
00:55and last but not least Trinidad and Tobago.
00:59Outgoing President of the CWWA Marlon Daniels notes that it is the third declaration to
01:05be signed, first being the Declaration of Basseterre in 2019 and then the Declaration
01:10of Georgetown in 2023.
01:12The overarching fact is that the declaration is birthed from the ministerial process and
01:18it reflects the cogent issues that face the Caribbean and how we intend to solve those
01:22issues.
01:23So whilst it is non-binding on the governments, it is a commitment from the visiting ministers
01:27and from their governments that together we work with our funding partners, with the CWWA
01:32and with our collective governments to fix the issues that we have identified.
01:36At a two-day CWWA conference at the Hyatt Regency from October 21st, the issue of funding
01:42was one of the main talking points.
01:45While this resource is available, timeliness has been deemed a problem.
01:49I implored our international lending partners, the CAF, IDB, CDB and the World Bank that
01:58they need to look at their internal processes to ensure that whilst we are prepared to partner
02:04with them, that the internal processes reflect the urgency that we are in.
02:12At the opening ceremony on Monday, Chairman of the Water and Sewerage Authority Ravindran
02:17Nanga, Senior Counsel, noted that water resources are threatened at this time.
02:22So we have embarked upon a very rigorous well drilling program.
02:26We have sent out an emergency tender for desalination plants, modular desalination plants to supplement
02:33the difficulties that we face.
02:36And at this point I would like to indicate that at the authority, although we indicated
02:40that we were open for business last year, given the strides that we have made, WASA
02:45is not only a Trinidad and Tobago Water Authority, first and foremost, we are a Caribbean authority
02:51and we look forward to collaboration with all our partners within the Caribbean sector.
02:57And according to Nanga, WASA is also looking for the same on an international level.
03:03In March of this year, Minister Gonzalez mentioned a plan to construct two smaller desalination
03:07plants to be located in Moruga in Trinidad and Charlottesville in Tobago.
03:13On another note, on Wednesday, the CWWA presidential baton will be handed to Trinbagonian Candice Santana.
03:22Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
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