THE SPREADING water woes from which Guyana and  a number of other Caribbean Community partners are reeling, largely from the effects of drought, is high on the agenda of the 21st Inter-Sessional Meeting of CARICOM leaders which gets underway today in Roseau, Dominica. Also listed for “sharp focus” by Heads of Government of the 15-member Community, will be initiatives to secure “positive responses” from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to help meet the region’s special needs out of allocations made last year at the G-20 Summit in London.

CARICOM leaders have scheduled caucus sessions for today and tomorrow with expected top officials of the international financial institutions (IFIs) that, in addition to the IMF and World Bank, also include the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB).

The sessions with the IFI officials have been designed to secure some clear understanding of potential assistance to result from the coming June G-20 meeting in Ottawa, to ease the serious financial and economic problems affecting disadvantaged and vulnerable economies

In relation to the prevailing water woes, the Community Secretariat has explained  that the region’s water resources will be discussed within the context of “critical development issues” as they affect households, businesses and the agricultural sector.

More effective management of water resources has evolved as a key area of concentration for governments  in some member states, like Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago.

Others, among them Guyana and members of the OECS sub-region, have been particularly hard hit by unusually severe dry conditions associated with the so-called “El Nino” weather phenomenon.

A third major agenda issue for the Roseau meeting, being hosted by current Community chairman, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, will be CARICOM’s involvement with earthquake-devastated Haiti.

The President of Haiti Rene Preval, who has just had a White House meeting with President Barack Obama, is expected to be in Dominica either later today or early tomorrow.

He will update his Community colleagues on the current challenges at home and indicate expectations from pledged financial aid for national reconstruction.

President Obama has announced his intention to get the United States Congress to approve US$1B in post-earthquake  aid for Haiti.

President Preval has been emphasising that fundamentally at stake was the economic development of “a new Haiti” and not merely the rehabilitation and reconstruction of its capital, Port-au-Prince.

Present for the session on Haiti will be former Jamaica Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, who is currently functioning as the Community’s Special Envoy on Haiti.

With the possible exception of Suriname’s President Runaldo Venetiaan, all other Heads of Government are expected for the Roseau meeting, among them President Bharrat Jagdeo.

Use file photo of President Jagdeo, PM Roseveldt Skerrit, President Rene Preval  and President Runaldo Venetiaan, and PJ Patterson