World Bank asked to consider Guyana's vulnerability to flooding
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| Published on Saturday, June 30, 2007 |
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GEORGETOWN, Guyana (GINA): Guyana, because of its geographic location, is not susceptible to hurricanes as her Caribbean sister States however, the country is not immune to flooding and its vulnerability to flooding is becoming increasingly a major concern for the government.
It is in this regard the Head of State President Bharrat Jagdeo, whilst in Washington for the Conference on the Caribbean, took the opportunity when he met with representatives of the multilateral financial institutions to request that Guyana be considered eligible to access Catastrophic Risk Insurance.
“I had a good meeting with the multilateral financial institutions. I took the opportunity to advance discussion on Guyana in particular …What I have been asking them to do is to extend the Catastrophic Risk Insurance they put in place for the Caribbean to Guyana, because that programme dealt mainly with hurricane and we pointed out that we are vulnerable not to hurricanes but flooding.”
This was revealed to the media this week at a press briefing upon Jagdeo's return from the meeting.
“We had some indications from the World Bank that they would seek to extend the coverage of the programme to Guyana,” he said while expanding on the feedback given on Guyana’s request.
Jagdeo said the opportunity was also seized to garner a position on unresolved and other issues as it relates to Guyana and the multilateral financial institution
“We also spoke about our portfolio namely the pipeline projects with the Inter- American Development Bank. We got some assurances from them that some of the issues we have unresolved would be resolved favourably.”
Before returning home from the US the Head of State spent three days in Japan where he met Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and signed a joint declaration on enhanced cooperation in environment and climate change issues between the two countries.
Under the declaration both sides agree to tackling environmental and climate change issues which are wreaking havoc on the world’s ecosystems and causing extreme weather conditions.
The magnitude of the devastation of hurricanes in the past years has prompted the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to request the World Bank’s help in establishing an insurance system. With a $1.8 million Japanese grant, the Bank worked with local Caribbean institutions to design a suitable mechanism.
The result is the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), the world’s first ever multi-country catastrophe insurance pool. The facility will be critical in helping vulnerable countries start repairs quickly
The CCRIF will enable governments to purchase catastrophe coverage similar to business interruption insurance that will provide them with an early cash payment after a major hurricane or earthquake.
According to a World Bank release, “Pooling their risk will save the 18 participating countries some 40 percent in individual premium payments. Countries will get automatic payments, without having to wait for an assessment of the damage.”
Donors from Bermuda, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, the Caribbean Development Bank, and the World Bank have pledged a total of US$47M to the CCRIF reserve fund. These contributions will enable the CCRIF to become operational in time for this year’s hurricane season, which already kicked off this month.
The release also said, “Participating countries, including the Bahamas, Dominica, St Lucia, and Antigua and Barbuda, underscored the need to extend coverage under the Facility to other types of natural disaster, such as floods. Such an extension is planned as the next stage of the Facility.” | | | | Reads : 131 | | | |
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