The workshop which will be held at the Bay Gardens Hotel in Rodney Bay, is geared towards private and public sector water resources professionals in St. Lucia, as well as, representatives from government agencies and non-governmental organisations involved in water resources management on the island.
Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is a process which promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources in order to maximise economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems. It is a holistic participatory approach. By adopting an IWRM approach, countries can improve their ability to to resist, absorb, accommodate and recover from the effects of a (climate) hazard in a timely and efficient manner while retaining the same basic structure and ways of functioning. In other words IWRM helps build climate resilience.
The training event will adopt an exercise based approach utilising in particular, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) Climate Online Risk and Adaptation Tool (CCORAL) http://ccoral.caribbeanclimate.bz/ to help participants identify and address climate concerns in water projects, programmes, policies and strategies. During the workshop participants will assess inter alia the St. Lucia National Water Policy and agency plans and projects to identify ways these can be strengthened for climate resilience.
The training workshop will also utilise a GWP-C Caribbean version of the Cap-Net/Caribbean WaterNet training package on “IWRM as a Tool for Adaptation to Climate Change.” The workshop will also familiarise participants with relevant tools and resources such as the GWP-C/CCCCC publication on “Achieving Development Resilient to Climate Change: A Sourcebook for the Caribbean Water Sector.”
Mr. Sylvester Clauzel, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Sustainable Development,
Energy, Science and Technology will deliver the opening remarks at the event. Facilitators will include Dr. Natalie Boodram, Manager of the GWP-C Water, Climate and Development Programme (WACDEP) and Mr. Keith Nichols, Project Specialist at the CCCCC. The workshop is part of a regional training programme executed by GWP-C and its partners. According to Dr. Boodram “water professionals already have a good idea of how climate change is likely to affect water resources - this training programme is geared towards sharing and using tools and resources to help in decision making to address climate impacts.”