The Consortium of Caricom Institutions on Water, the body tasked with responsibility for developing a Common Water Framework for the community, will hold its second meeting in Saint Lucia from today.
This meeting, Caricom said in a release, is an attempt to ensure that the community continues “to put in place effective mechanisms towards ensuring that the region adopts a harmonized approach to securing, managing and protecting its water resources.”
At the three-day meeting in Castries, environment and water management specialists who make up the consortium will commence the major task of developing the common water framework for the Community.
Additionally, the consortium of water management experts will develop its consolidated work programme for 2011 -2012 and will also discuss proposals for setting up a virtual clearing house and library of water resources projects across the region. “This will be done in an effort to reduce project duplication and enhance the regional benefits from executed projects, particularly where commonalities exist within member states,” the release said.
“There are also plans to develop a regional water resources skills database which would be available to organizations and governments seeking specialized expertise, and to identify capacity deficiencies within the region,” the release stated. “Where applicable, the meeting will review existing databases that could be modified or strengthened to meet this requirement,” the release added.
Due to the recognition of the critical importance of resource mobilization in managing the community’s water, the consortium will also be expected to endorse the resource mobilization strategy proposed by the Caricom Secretariat.
The consortium comprises representatives from the Caricom Secretariat, the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), Caribbean Environmental Health Institute (CEHI) Caribbean Basin Water Management Programme (CBWMP) Caribbean Waternet, the Caricom Climate Change Centre, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Caribbean Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA), regional universities of Guyana, Suriname and the West Indies and the Institute of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology.
