Saint Lucia’s National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) in collaboration with the Ministry of Infrastructure hosted a Validation Workshop for Saint Lucia’s Multi-Hazard Early Warning System Report and Gap Analysis.
The Validation Workshop is part of a project aimed at strengthening integrated Early Warning Systems in Caribbean countries.
The first phase of the initiative is titled “Strengthening Integrated Early Warning Systems for More Effective Disaster Risk Deduction in The Caribbean Through Knowledge and Tool Transfer.”
Alexia Cooke, Regional Technical Coordinator for the Early Warning Systems Project, multiple sectors and agencies are working on improving the early warning systems.
“There have been about 35 agencies across Saint Lucia representing the different sectors as well as hazards that affect Saint Lucia. They have been working on validating the Early Warning Systems gaps that they have identified through the application of the Early Warnings System Checklist. There have been activities and group work around developing actions to address the gaps identified.”
NEMO Director Velda Joseph, expressed that NEMO’s vision is to have a platform that will warn the nation in a timely manner.
“We recognize and acknowledge that early warning systems is a critical component of disaster risk reduction and we place really heavy emphasis on ensuring our population understand that Disaster Risk Reduction is key to being prepared. We encourage persons to look at actions to reduce risks and to mitigate against the impact of hazards. Therefore, what we did was administer a checklist to determine where we are in terms of implementing a national early warning system.”
The project is funded by The Disaster Preparedness Program of the European commission. It took place from May 22 – 23, at the Ministry of Infrastructure in Union, Castries.
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