BY JULIA RAWLINS-BENTHAM | FEB 26, 2024
Minister of Home Affairs and Information, Wilfred Abrahams and Deputy Chief of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean, Saskia Carusi, in discussion at their recent courtesy call. (C. Pitt/BGIS)
Government has invested heavily in expanding its early warning capacity to alert the public about impending hazards to allow them time to adequately prepare for likely impacts.
Minister of Home Affairs and Information, Wilfred Abrahams, outlined this during a courtesy call with Deputy Chief of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean, Saskia Carusi, recently.
Representatives from the UNDRR paid the Ministry a visit to follow up on work being done under the Early Warning for All (EW4ALL) initiative, which is currently under way in Barbados.
Mr. Abrahams told the delegation that Government had invested a lot in the Barbados Meteorological Services over the last two years, and the department was able to secure the necessary equipment, which included unmanned sea drones and aerial drones to assist in the early detection of systems approaching the region.
The Minister outlined that early predictions for this hurricane season surpassed that of last year, with January and February already being recorded as the hottest months on record.
Therefore, he stressed the need for early warning systems to be in place to alert the public in a timely manner. “We stand to lose so much. It is not a theoretical exercise. For us, it is the difference between life and death and how much damage is done,” he said.
During the meeting, Director of the Department of Emergency Management (DEM), Kerry Hinds, thanked the UNDRR for providing the necessary support to Barbados and the DEM. She noted that it was important to move forward with the initiatives under the EW4ALL project and gain additional resources.
Ms. Carusi explained that Barbados was one of 30 countries selected to benefit from the EW4ALL global initiative, which focuses on building out early warning systems in countries, risk information to ensure that focus was placed on saving people and property, and the development of the country.
The stakeholders also discussed the need to move the programme forward at a faster pace, ways to fill the gaps, and to build on the work done so far.
Also present were Permanent Secretary, Yvette Goddard; Technical Consultant for Integrated National Strategy for Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction (I-NAP/CWP) for Barbados, Carol-Anne Blenman; UNDRR Technical Consultant for the Risk Information Exchange Platform, Brendon Taylor; and Consultant-UNDRR EW4ALL Initiative, Anwar Baksh.
