The World Bank’s Board of Directors on Thursday approved a US$3.8M ($760M) grant to support governmental efforts to reduce Guyana’s vulnerability from catastrophic flooding.
The funding is part of the previously announced Conservancy Adaptation Project and seeks to strengthen donors’ and Government’s understanding of the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) and coastal drainage patterns through the integration of advanced mapping and engineering analysis. It also aims to increase the drainage relief capacity of the Conservancy to the Demerara River by 35 per cent.
A press release from the World Bank said that the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) Special Climate Change Fund is providing the grant with the support of the International Development Association (IDA), a concessional lending arm which supports the world’s poorest countries.
“Reducing Guyana’s vulnerability to floods is critical to maintaining the economic stability of the country,” the release quoted Caroline Anstey, World Bank Country Director for the Caribbean, as saying.
“The consequences of climate change in Caribbean nations like Guyana will impose a heavy burden on the economies of the region, in particular on the poor. It is for this reason that climate change is central to the Bank’s agenda in the region.”
The project also aims at implementing infrastructure investments to improve drainage performance, to strengthen the institutional capacity for managing water and floodwater levels, and to guide interventions to reduce Guyana’s vulnerability to floods.
Among the specific activities to be completed by 2010, the project will develop a ground surface elevation model for predicting surface water flow patterns to produce an engineering foundation critical for flood control management.
The project will also identify at least 10 key drainage systems for follow-on intervention and support specific construction works designed to increase the drainage relief capacity of the EDWC to the Demerara River.
