By: Staff Writer
February 10, 2023
A United Kingdom policy development chief says that the way to protect the Caribbean against harmful climatic events is through building fiscal, physical and system resilience and how the UK will support the Caribbean in building these.
Malcolm Geere, Development Director for the Caribbean in the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, said at the Launch of Resilience Campaign, “Responding to the Climate Resilience Challenge in the Caribbean,” that the UK is prepared to support the Caribbean in building the resilience infrastructure necessary for the region to withstand climate related shocks and devastation.
Mr Geere also said that after having become acclimated to the region, he realized the UK’s response to approaching the climate related challenges large G-20 countries have foisted upon small developing nations was “inadequate.”
He also said: “I visited Abaco, but as I said, this was an absolute eye opener for me in many ways and through that experience, I became acutely aware that my response both personal and professional, as a public official, were highly inadequate for what I was seeing.
“I know that we have become immune… but the reality really is something very different. The devastation was total and it happened overnight. It wasn’t just about buildings that had to be insured and rebuilt, but about people who lost all remnants of the lives that they had had up until that point.”
Hurricane Dorian that landed in The Bahamas in September, 2019 completely obliterated the North and Central part of Abaco.
The Category 5 hurricane was about 280 miles across, with the hurricane-force winds about 90 miles in diameter. Dorian’s tropical storm-force wind field was 61,575 square miles.
The number of confirmed deaths caused by Hurricane Dorian is 67, with 282 persons still missing as of 18 October 2019. An additional 29,472 persons were affected by the hurricane by damages to their homes and assets.
According to the Inter-American Development Bank, Dorian caused about $3.4bn in damages, which is equal to one-quarter of The Bahamas’ GDP.
Having met with government officials in The Bahamas in the aftermath of Dorian, Mr Geere said: “The photos of the impact of Hurricane Dorian encapsulates the imperative for resilience building across the region. This is what can be done to infrastructure, lives and livelihoods after just a couple of hours of a category five hurricane.
To mitigate against this, countries in the region need to firstly “devise a plan” in the likelihood that there is a natural disaster and then “arrange financing” and lastly to “execute on the plan,” and that these three things Mr Geere said would go a long way in saving lives.
He also said: “So it’s really important, first, that governments understand two things, the key asset risk, which is how much will it cost to recover your critical assets, your power supply, your water and sanitation, your medical facilities…and How much finance do you need to do that and where do you prioritize those investments?”