TWO Caribbean islands whose citizens have suffered loss of life and damaged infrastructures as a result of adverse weather in recent times are pointing fingers at climate change as the reasons for their immense losses.
Saint Lucia and Dominica have both experienced the same harrowing scenes following bad weather.
Saint Lucia’s recent exposure to climate change, according to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Infrastructure, Port Services and Transport, Allison Jean, was on Christmas Eve of 2013 when a trough affected the island taking with it six lives and causing infrastructure and property damage island-wide.
During the hours of December 24 – 25, nine bridges were destroyed and several roads remained impassable for days. Homes were flooded, agriculture suffered severely, schools were damaged and the Hewanorra International Airport was shut down temporarily.
Communities hardest hit were Central Castries, Anse la Raye, Canaries, Micoud, Vieux Fort and Soufriere. Thousands of Saint Lucians were displaced.
Saint Lucia suffered losses of US$99 million as a result of the Christmas Eve trough.
Jean said that climate change puts pressure on governments who have to respond to adverse weather conditions that are manifesting themselves and are linked to climate change.
“The people of Saint Lucia must be aware that climate change is real and that the effects of weather changes will manifest themselves in the deterioration of our infrastructure,” Jean said, adding that government is building more resilient infrastructure.
The building of a more resilient infrastructure has been echoed by Dominica’s Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit. That country last week suffered widespread damage to its infrastructure due to the passage of Tropical Storm Erika. Twenty residents died as a result, and communities were cut off from each other, roads destroyed, etc.
According to Skerrit “the fundamental problem is that small islands around the world have become vulnerable to the vagaries of climate change.”
“They are liable to suffer immensely from rising sea levels, from tsunamis or from the disturbance of other natural resources,” Skerrit said.
He said that excessive rain brought by Erika caused several of the island’s waterways to overflow creating mudslides, landslides that swamped communities across the island.