Georgetown: The European Union has reaffirmed its commitment towards disaster risk reduction in the Caribbean, allocating 8.5 million Euros to its Disaster Preparedness (DIPECHO) Action Plan. Up to the end of 2014, a total of 14 projects in 11 countries will work to reduce the region’s vulnerabilities in the face of natural hazards such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and tsunamis, and to improve communities and authorities’ preparedness to respond to emergencies. Recent events like the Low Level Trough System which left serious damage in the Eastern Caribbean, especially in Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, are a reminder of the need to invest in interventions that can make a difference in determining whether a natural hazard becomes or not a disaster. The EU has also supported the emergency response in those countries with 300,000 euros.
“Preparedness measures can be taken to reduce the impact of natural hazards. A community’s response to disasters depends on their preparation,” states Jocelyn Lance, ECHO Caribbean’s Head of office. “DIPECHO projects help communities at risk to anticipate, face, adapt and to recover quickly from disasters. The fact that communities strengthen their capacities and modify their attitudes towards disasters can save lives,” Lance said.
According to European Commission's humanitarian aid and civil protection, an estimated 654,000 people will benefit from ongoing projects in Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Jamaica, Dominica, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Guyana, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Suriname and Trinidad & Tobago
Disaster preparedness projects funded by the European Commission’s Department of Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO) have demonstrated their relevance and success to improve the response capacity of communities in the Caribbean. Testimonies from countries where these projects are carried out indicate so, after their improved response was tested in the last years by extreme phenomena such as tropical storm Chantal or hurricane Sandy.
“Humanitarian aid does not start after the disaster, but before it happens, so that its possible effects can be mitigated. That is why DIPECHO interventions are important. They promote measures such as the structural evaluation of health facilities to verify if these can withstand a disaster, emergency plans and seismic vulnerability and flooding studies,” explains the Head of ECHO Caribbean Office. “Small mitigation works, such as bridges or retaining walls to avoid communities from being isolated or flooded and the rehabilitation of shelters to protect people displaced during a crisis are all examples of DIPECHO contributions to disaster risk reduction,” concludes Jocelyn Lance.
All actions are conducted in close collaboration with the national disaster management systems and with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDEMA). The current programme incorporates innovations such us working on volcanic risk and integrating people with disabilities in Disaster Risk Reduction.
Since 1994, ECHO has allocated over 290 million Euros in humanitarian assistance in Haiti and 147 million Euros to the rest of the Caribbean region. Of those sums, 25.9 million euros went to disaster risk reduction and preparedness in Haiti and 29 million euros in the rest of the Caribbean.
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