THE fifth annual High Level Session and Ministerial Forum of the Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA) has recommended that a plan must be urgently developed within the context of a common water framework.

The recommendation was made in light of a global problem that has resulted in millions of people dying annually, because they lack access to water, yet the importance of it is not demonstrated in terms of advocacy.

So said Minister of Housing and Water, Mr. Irfaan Ali, after his return following attendance at the conference and addressing colleague ministers and policymakers during October 3 to 6 at Marriot Frenchman’s Reef, in St. Thomas, United States (U.S.) Virgin Islands.

The gathering was co-hosted by the Virgin Islands Waste Management Authority, in partnership with the Government of the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Global Water Partnership, under the theme ‘Building a Water Secured Region: a Caribbean response.’

Ali made a presentation with the aim of sharing with other regional ministers and policymakers the challenges facing Caribbean countries to become water secure nations.

Speaking to the media at his Brickdam, Georgetown office, last Thursday, he said the occasion gathered together a number of ministers with responsibility for water in the Caribbean and top level technical officials and government representatives.

He recalled that, subsequent to a COTED (Council for Trade and Economic Development) meeting in April 2008, where it was decided to develop a common water framework, work was done to bring together all the agencies to create a structured response that the region would face in the future, as regards the management and delivery of water.

Ali said those entities include the integrated water resource management for all users, such as farmers, the hotel industry, industries and potable water for citizens, in addition to the issues in relation to waste water treatment and recycling and extraction of water.

Damaging
He said they met and recognised that, while it is sometimes believed that the Caribbean is insulated from the global water crisis, because of the level that surrounds it, in Guyana, which is known to be the land of many waters, there has been the prolonged effects of El Nino over the last month and it can be damaging to the farming sector, for example the rice and ordinary cash crops and the economy.

Ali said the region has to ensure that an integrated system is built for the management and use of water, taking into consideration future challenges of global warming, increased pollution and changing needs.

He said it was emphasised that advocacy is critical to letting the populace in the Caribbean become aware of the challenges the water sector is facing.

Ali outlined the importance of conservation, harnessing and striking a practical economic cost for the delivery of water.

He said the institutional developmental financing that is required to combat water related issues is not given the priority it deserves, with energy efficiency, technology transfer, delivery of treated water and waste management, all being fundamental challenges with which the entire region still has to cope.

“Barbados for example is becoming a water stress nation. We, therefore, need to develop a comprehensive regional response, that takes into consideration issues of the environment, technology, education, resource mobilisation, budgetary allocation and trade arrangements, to deal with future impact,” Ali observed.

He said critical to this is the development of a comprehensive research and development arm that would also be tasked with data collection and analysis crucial for planning and presently lacking in terms of water resource.

“We also need to create a change in mindset or change in culture of the people of the Caribbean in how they treat water and water related issues and that change must commence now from the level of a school curriculum,” Ali posited.

He said the recent session underscored, too, that the whole approach must be a multi-stakeholder and participatory one where all the sectors are involved.

Recommendations
It also pointed to the fragmented way in which various agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been working, in relation to water related issues and made other recommendations to include that:

* a joint session of COTED and COHSOD (Council for Human and Social Development) to be convened in 2010 with water as the agenda item;

* a CARICOM consortium on water, previously spoken of in April 2008 at COTED, be designated as a technical advisory body on water to COTED and COHSOD;

* the regional action plan should adapt IWRM (Integrated Water Resources Management) and include strategies for resource mobilisation, capacity building, data collection and management, in collaboration with Ministries of Finance and Planning and that

* water is represented at the Quasi Cabinet Level of CARICOM as a substantive portfolio.

Those would be sent to CARICOM and Ali has been tasked with the responsibility of following up their implementation, on behalf of the high level session.