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Contact:
John Emmanuel
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Disaster professionals and environmentalists meet for Post Disaster
Assessment Workshop |
Thursday, February 26, 2004 – The first in a series of country specific
training courses in the use of a Post Disaster Rapid Environment Assessment
Manual is to end here on Thursday, February 26, 2004. The three-day event is
being held at the Bay Gardens Hotel in Rodney Bay.
The course targets disaster management professionals and environmentalists and
is organized by the Environmental and Sustainable Development Unit of the OECS
in collaboration with the National Emergency Management Office (NEMO). The
manual is intended to provide an assessment team with meaningful information on
damage to the natural environment based on a standardized approach.
According to NEMO’s Director Dawn French, normally when a damage assessment is
conducted information is gathered from the agricultural sector with primary
emphasis on the banana industry, which usually bares the brunt of the storm or
heavy winds. She says “notwithstanding the environment itself in terms of the
mountains, flora, fauna, beaches and the like, these things are not in
themselves captured at present in damage assessment reports.”
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Consultant and Course facilitator Dr. George Sammy |
Consultant and Course Facilitator Dr. George Sammy says a significant component
of the manual is that of quantifying in terms of dollars and cents the cost of
environment damage, “while at the same time ensuring that activities undertaken
in response to a disastrous event do not themselves create environmental
problems.”
Research indicates that while steps are being taken to reduce the vulnerability
of OECS countries to the impacts of disasters, there is a pressing need to
integrate environmental considerations into addressing such impacts.
The preparation of the manual and guidelines follows a request by the OECS
Environment Ministers. Input for the manual has come from the Caribbean
Emergency and Disaster Response Agency (CDERA), as well as the Caribbean
Development Bank (CDB), which has invested heavily in pre and post disaster
activities within the region.
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