Bigger CDEMA needed
President David Granger chatting with Secretary–General of the Commonwealth, The RT. Hon. Patricia Scotland, Prime Minister
of St. Lucia Mr. Allen Chastanet and Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Carl Greenidge at the United Nations Headquarters in New
York (Ministry of the Presidency photo)
President David Granger chatting with Secretary–General of the Commonwealth, The RT. Hon. Patricia Scotland, Prime Minister of St. Lucia Mr. Allen Chastanet and Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Carl Greenidge at the United Nations Headquarters in New York (Ministry of the Presidency photo)

-Pres Granger urges more coordinated approach to disaster relief

By Svetlana Marshall in New York
THE devastating impact of the recent series of hurricanes that have ravaged a number of Caribbean Islands and the urgent need to increase efforts to mitigate climate change, were

atop the agenda when President David Granger met with the Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland on Tuesday on the sidelines of the 72nd Regular Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 72) in New York. And he told Guyanese reporters that the Region needs a bigger disaster relief mechanism.

Minutes after the meeting with the Commonwealth Secretary-General at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, President Granger told journalists that climate change could no longer be ignored, as he pointed to Barbuda that is now unhabitable after being flattened by Hurricane Irma. “In my lifetime, I have never seen such catastrophic series of hurricanes, starting from Harvey to Irma, to Lee to Maria, to Katia. So it is quite clear that climate change is not something that we could ignore,” President Granger said, while noting that the small island states of the Caribbean are very vulnerable.

President David Granger meeting with the Commonwealth Secretary-General Baroness Patricia Scotland in the presence of the Permanent Representative of Guyana to the United Nations Ambassador Michael Ten-Pow and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge

As result, President Granger said, during his meeting with Scotland, he underscored the importance of placing climate change on the front burner and the need for relief and protection of Caribbean member states, when the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting is held in London in 2019.

Additionally, the President stated that there is clearly a need to expand the work of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA). “We have to broaden CDEMA, because what is happening now, several countries are being adversely affected at the same time, simultaneously, so it is not sequentially, so we can deal with one country and then the next, everybody saw the picture of Barbuda,” he posited, while also pointing to countries such as Dominica and the British Virgin Islands (BVI) that have also been hard hit.

President David Granger engaging members of the Guyana press corps shortly after his high-level meeting with the Commonwealth Secretary-General. (Ministry of the Presidency Photo)

Attention, he reiterated, must now be placed on providing relief and evacuation, but said the affected should not be moved from one affected country to another.
While relief and evacuation are short-term solutions, medium and long-term solutions should be implemented to reverse the effects of global warming.

“More importantly, we got to think about mitigation, how we are going to prevent climate change at a global scale from affecting small-island developing states and also low-lying developing states, because, Belize, Suriname, and Guyana can also be affected by global warming and rising sea levels,” he told journalists.

Very important role
Guyana, he said, has a very important role to play in in mitigating climate change, and its domino effect. “We are the largest CARICOM state and we have to consider our land space as being the hinterland of the Caribbean; we have to sit down and speak to other Caribbean states to see how this gift maybe could be utilised to give the people in the Caribbean a better life in [the] wake of these disasters,” President Granger explained.

More attention, he emphasised, must be placed on green technologies and environmental measures. For Guyana, extension of the country’s protected areas would be critical in aiding the move to gradually bring global warming under control. “Guyana is the largest CARICOM state and Guyana fortunately is located in the Guiana Shield, which is part of the lungs of the earth, so we would like to intensify our work to contribute to mitigation, to climate adaptation, by extending our protected areas, by protecting our forests, and making sure that Guyana continues to discharge that duty to mankind. Guyana is the best suited of all the CARICOM states to do so and we would like to play our role in that global partnership.”

Contributions
Zooming in on the work being done by Guyana to assist countries plagued by hurricanes, the President admitted that it has been a challenge.
Guyana has doubled its contribution to relief for Caribbean territories affected by Hurricane Irma from US$50,000 to US$100,000.

A Guyana’s Needs Assessment Team headed by Minister of Citizenship Winston Felix is currently on the ground in Antigua coordinating relief for Guyanese nationals affected by Hurricane Irma in a number of Caribbean islands.
He said it is important for Guyana’s response to be a coordinated one, noting that the Government is concerned about the affected Guyanese, particularly those who would like to return home, and those who have lost all of their documents such as identification cards and passports and will need assistance.

“We are committed to CDEMA and sometimes there is a temptation for people to rush it, but you know in places like Barbuda there is no port, there is no authority. So we felt that unless our efforts were coordinated we would not get the best results. No point sending containers there when it can’t be unloaded, or it has stuff that people don’t need, so we are working through CDEMA,” he explained.

President said he could not update the press on the current situation on the ground, given that there has been a serialisation of catastrophe. “It is quite a pity that so many countries have been affected for so long by this continuing serial, and I really hope that it is brought to an end pretty soon.”

The President met with the Commonwealth Secretary-General in the presence of the Permanent Representative of Guyana to the United Nations, Ambassador Michael Ten-Pow and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge.

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1 thought on “Bigger CDEMA needed”

  1. September 20, 2017

    CARICOM does not need CDEMA which palns a gala event at the next conference to suander our taxes. See Trinidad Guardian today-
    Ramrajie Chance her common law husband Sammar Ali and four of their five children stand on the step of their home surrounded by flood waters yesterday in Sunrees Road, Penal .
    While T&T continues to assist its hurricane ravaged Caribbean neighbours, a call is being made for Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan to tend to their people first.
    Penal councillor Shanty Boodram said since Tropical Storm Bret devastated the burgesses of the Penal/Debe Regional Corporation (PDRC) last June, they are still begging for equipment to conduct the necessary flood mitigation works.
    Yesterday morning’s rain in south Trinidad was just an outer band of Hurricane Maria, which devastated the Leeward Islands. Several parts of Penal, Siparia and Cedros were flooded.
    Pregnant mother Ramrajie Chance and her five children, who were left stranded in their homes in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Bret, suffered the same fate yesterday. Chance’s home at the edge of the lagoon along Sunrees Road was 12 inches above the mauby-coloured water. Blocked from attending school, her children sat near the stairs pointing to the lilies where they saw a snake and two caiman’s earlier. Chance’s husband, Sameer Ali,said he could not risk going into the water, showing a cut on his foot he suffered yesterday. The water flooded their outhouse, making it especially dangerous for the children to enter.

    Boodram said since 2.30 am she was getting calls from affected residents and by noon, there were at least 20 households damaged in here electoral district. She said school supplies, furniture and appliances were damaged. She said that following TS Bret, Government promised to provide the PDRC with an excavator to clear watercourses but no equipment ever came.
    “I am calling on the Minister of Works and the Prime Minister today. You are helping your neighbouring countries. I see the disaster and I’m pleading for those people. But we have people here too who are pleading with you to come and help residents,” Boodram said.
    PDRC chairman Dr Allen Sammy added that a major contributor to the floods was the illegal filling of land and watercourse, which has to be dealt with. He said should a storm or hurricane hit T&T; his region could suffer loss of life, livestock and property.

    In Bonasse Village, Cedros, at least 20 houses were flooded near a NIDCO project site to repair a floodgate leading to the sea. Siparia Regional Corporation chairman Dr Glenn Ramadharsingh said mattresses and tarpaulins were provided to the affected families and they were making arrangements to purchase cleaning supplies.

    Erin residents experienced floods as well, but by midday, most of the water had receded.

    As the spectre of homelessness stalks the land, Trinidad sent a helicopter to Antigua after Irma and CAL transported CARICOM victims to Trinidad. In a third abhorrent scandal, with over 200,000 homeless, Trinidad. sent a state plane and ship to Dominica. The private sector rescued squatters from a swamp infested with deadly caiman and snakes after they were refused a state boat to escape flood from Bret . My family donated a dinghy for flood rescue but companies appeal for funds for Irma while locals languish after floods from Don, in OILFIELDS POURING BILLIONS OF PETRODOLLARS INTO STATE COFFERS , where children are not in school . Funds for CARCICOM can be diverted to affordable social housing for squatters, a basic right.

    As more hurricanes brew offshore subsaharan states , supranational CARICOM can prepare for evacuation to the African Union which offered repatriation since 2010 to ancestral homelands free from hurricanes, volcanoes and earthquakes, a means of reparation from the AU to compensate for historic woes after selling people into slavery.
    Commonwealth states like Ghana abound in mineral resources and real estate which can provide ethical livelihoods for evacuees to recreate their heritage. This should satisfy activists demanding reparation from EU, now rescuing rich tax havens and flag states with funds from hard-working taxpayers . Ungrateful islanders received 40 tons of aid by the shipload and planeload valued at £57 million, a fortune from the UK, where homelessness rose to 271,000. Royal Navy RFA in the West Indies since July delivered emergency relief. HMS Ocean is arriving today with helicopters and other vital aid but only 11 died. France is sending aid to Dominica. UN agencies funded by our taxes are in the region, notorious for fraud, low standards and poor governance. demand donors risk lives in a C5 storm to supply food and water which incompetent CARICOM can deliver by a merger of CAL and LIAT. CNN invited donations for looters and shooters , who can afford guns but not hurricane technology -roof ties, water butts, drainage and maintenance of wetlands .
    In CARICOM bureaucracies individualistic governments lack priorities, ignore corrosive crime, depend on EU aid and waste resources on flags, fashion, fatuous entertainment, carnival,, addictive vice and imported bling . Progress is stymied by discrimination against foreign investors, entrepreneurs and business.. USD rules in the airport in Antigua, which refuses currency of Trinidad & Tobago, the cuisine of which is on the menu of airport restaurants.
    Fragile lands in the hurricane path, now unfit for human habitation , can recover after evacuation by forces of nature and return to the wilderness. We must end obscene misuse of our taxes to rebuild resorts which advertise Citizenship by Investment and are rolling in funds from corrupt regimes like Nigeria. .For the minority who cannot evacuate, diversification into agriculture can ensure security of food, employment and health, with benefits of sunshine, water resources and renewable energy, to maintain harbours for shipping and a first aid post.
    Restructuring the region will save lives and end the annual anxiety over storm damage . The political impact will be positive as evacuees create new opportunities. Other benefits include an end to unethical industries such as tobacco, ,rum, beer , vice including casinos, financial fraud including money-laundering and imports of trash for unsustainable lifestyles.
    CARICOM inclusion in the renegotiation of NAFTA and the North American Energy Strategy will boost trade, security and investment in offshore , geothermal, hydro, solar and wind energy, as Guyana and Trinidad counter decline in Venezuela. During the UN General Assembly 2017 , CARICOM should seek a formal partnership between the energy sector and the United States-Caribbean Strategic Engagement Act which mandates a long-term strategy to strengthen ties to increase security and prosperity of the region. As partition in Guyana threatens segregation by a group demanding land, alignment with the American strategy for the Caribbean on sustainable development will protect the third border of the USA, characterized by common interests and historic links that yield benefits for the U.S. A., the primary trading partner in an economic partnership that produced a USD4.6 billion trade surplus for America, 14 million US tourists and 11,042 Caribbean students in the US.

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