Representatives from NAWASA participate in Water Management forum

Chairman of the Board of Directors of NAWASA,
Terrence Smith.

Three officials from the National Water and Sewage Authority (NAWASA) were among persons who recently participated in the Eighth Annual High Level Session (HLS) Ministerial Forum in The Bahamas, where Water Ministers in the region met and committed themselves to making all efforts to addressing water security and climate change in the region.

NAWASA was represented by Chairman of Board of Directors, Terrence Smith; General Manager, Christopher Husbands; and Chief Engineer, Nigel Lowe.

At the end of the meeting, nine Caribbean Ministers with responsibility for Water Resources Management signed the document from the Ministerial Forum, which was a joint initiative of the Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C) and its partner, the Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA); and is an unmatched regional event, being the only meeting of Water Ministers in the Caribbean to date.

Critical to the declaration signed by the Ministers at the Forum, in which there were no ministerial representation from Grenada, was their recognition that high level political leadership is key for meeting water security and climate change challenges faced by Caribbean countries. “This, along with other recommendations recognising the importance of building a water secure Caribbean, was sanctioned by the Ministers from The Bahamas, Anguilla, Barbados, Belize, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Jamaica, Nevis, St. Kitts, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” said a statement from the organisers.
Also deemed imperative by the Ministers was that Caribbean governments in collaboration with regional partners should conduct national assessments on the status of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) implementation in the Caribbean and keep the implementation of IWRM under continuous review.

During the eighth HLS, Ministers and senior government officials were able to give their perspectives on national and regional priorities for water security in the Caribbean; as well as discuss regional water resource co-ordination at the Ministerial level. Some of the main issues brought to the fore in their discussions were the need for greater focus on IWRM; disaster risk reduction; closer integration of the water sector with other sectors; access to water; water tariffs; the need for more water experts in the region; raising water conservation consciousness at the national and regional level; looking into various water technologies to control resources; the use of rainwater harvesting as a mitigation practice; water’s impact on health; climate change being key to addressing water security, among other issues.  

The statement said that despite varying national priorities on water amongst the Ministers, there was a consensus that similar water resource challenges are faced in their respective countries and a clear means of moving forward on these issues should be decided.

The Ministers, through their discussions and informed technical inputs from national, regional and international agencies such as the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute (CEHI), the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), among others, agreed on seven critical concerns toward achieving national and regional water security. These areas included water as a national development issue; Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM); climate change and water; wastewater; regional co-operation; capacity building; and public awareness. (LS)