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Contact:
Primus Hutchinson
Thursday, June 24, 2004 - St. Lucia is to receive a financial boost to
help reduce its vulnerability to natural disasters. The assistance from the
World Bank, will see the disbursement of US$ 7.5 million dollars to help support
St. Lucia’s disaster preparedness and mitigation planning.
The project will help communities in St. Lucia protect the most vulnerable
households and the poor by enhancing the country’s preparedness and response to
such natural disasters like floods and hurricanes.
Director of the National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO), Dawn French
said that this would be the second phase of a disaster management programme,
which the government instituted last year.
Ms. French indicated that this year, NEMO would be assisted by the Project Co-ordinating
Unit of the Ministry of Planning. According to Ms. French, the project will
focus on three major areas.
Citing these as Physical Infrastructure, Emergency Preparedness and Response,
and Vulnerability Assessments and Hazard Mapping, Ms. French said that some of
these components would fall under NEMO, in collaboration with the Ministry of
Physical Development, and that the number of agencies in both public and private
sector would be looking at the Vulnerability Assessment and Hazard Mapping. “It
will be a very important tool for development both from a planning area from
government of St. Lucia and Individuals”, she said.
Financing for this second St. Lucia Disaster Management Project consists of a
$3.7 million dollar loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development, which is payable over a 15-year period, including five years grace,
and a $3.8 million, zero-interest credit from the International Development
Association, payable in 30 years including ten years grace.
The second Saint Lucia Disaster Management Project builds on the success of the
first Adaptable Programme Loan Project in Saint Lucia, approved in 1998 through
the Emergency Recovery and Disaster Management Programme (EDRMP). The EDRMP
programme financed physical and institutional efforts to reduce disaster
vulnerability and improve emergency preparedness and management in five
countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States. These are, Saint
Lucia, Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, and St. Vincent and the
Grenadines.
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