— this is vital first step to tackling climate change, says CDC

CITIZENS of Guyana can pursue several options to becoming more climate resilient, said representatives of the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) who are tackling the effects of the recent springtide.

Senior Response Officer, Captain Salim October and Mitigation and Recovery Manager (ag), Alana Walters, told Guyana Chronicle’s Vantage Point on Thursday that climate change, although a worldwide issue, can be dealt with in many ways by Guyanese.

Just recently, Regions Two, Three, Four, Five and Six were affected by the recent springtide in Guyana with high tide reaching as high as 3.2 meters.

Several communities have been affected but agencies of the government such as the CDC have been on the ground assisting with preventative measures prior to October 25, 2019, and after the spring tide came.

“There are a couple of things that we as citizens have to bear in mind and there are very clear steps that we can take at the individual level to help cushion some of those effects,” Captain October said.

These, he said, include ensuring that there is no garbage pile-up in drains which only serve to worsen the situation.

He stated that many municipalities continue to complain bitterly that residents are contributing to the flood problems.

He said: “When we went to La Jalousie yesterday (Wednesday), the drains are clogged in La Jalousie and they’ve never seen the back end of the small village dry. It’s because of garbage pile-up, grass pile-up and no one is taking responsibility for that.”

On the macro-level, Captain October pointed out that policy makers perhaps should reconsider how the geographic space of the coastline is utilised.

“Do we want to continue treating it as a space for housing and urban development and growth, or do we want to just treat it as agricultural, or do we want to now start to now encouraging a realignment or a shift in the housing population to encourage more in-land development?” he questioned.

The CDC senior response officer explained that in some areas in Region Three which were greatly affected by high tide, it was found that persons were squatting in floodplain areas which were not demarcated for housing. He urged for national discussions to be had on the matter.

ALTERNATIVES BEING PURSUED
Meanwhile, Walters said through closer collaboration with several agencies, alternatives are being pursued to lessen the impact of the tides.

Two such agencies are the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) and the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA) which are pushing climate resilient practices such as elevated pens for livestock rearing, model shade house nurseries and access to seedlings for farmers groups as an immediate rebound.

“What we are working on right now is expediting interventions to implement those sort of systems for the worst affected areas,” she said.

She added: “Those areas are communities which have a lot of agriculture activity going on and agriculture is one of the key drivers of the local economy and those communities; so we feel that one of the best approaches for sustainability is to stimulate those economic activities again so the communities can return to normalcy and back to surviving on its own.”

She also stressed that it is important for persons to understand their risk and vulnerabilities to harsh climates, based on where they reside.

“If you know you’re in a low-lying area, particularly those areas that have been affected in the past, heed the warnings and take the necessary measures for preparedness,” she said.

NEGLIGENT
On that note, Captain October said that while early warnings of the recent spring tide were given, some persons did not take the matter seriously.

“A process of early warning was activated but in a much shorter timeline and residents, many of whom still were not convinced that there was much merit in the early warning necessarily, so they did not take any appropriate actions and because this is almost unprecedented — they did not have the experience of tides rising so quickly — but because we had the data and we warned, those who actually took action in the last round of hightides had minimal impact while those who waited and waited until the saw something, the range and the speed at which it rose, they had very little time to respond,” he stated.

October advised that if warnings are heeded, residents can mitigate damages to their homes and items as well as adverse effects to their health.

He also urged persons to not only ensure they put themselves in order but to encourage others in the community to collectively take action.

Meanwhile, Walters noted that the development of a seasonal calendar, which maps the climate trend in Guyana over a stretch of years, is being developed to determine the possible patters and rate of changes.

She recommends the scaling up of the overall efforts to ensure that each community in Guyana understands its climate risks and how they can better protect themselves.