Nassau: The Bahamas: The Bahamas Agricultural Health and Food Safety Authority (BAHFSA) held  a second workshop on February 24-26, at the Paul Faquarhson Building at the Police Head Quarters on East Street under the theme,  “Hydro-climatic Disasters” in Integrated Water Resource Management

The objective of the workshop was  to “understand hydro-climatic disasters as it relates to Caribbean SIDS”, “identify and describe water related disasters and its impacts in relation to climate change and variability” and “understand the importance of Disaster Risk Reductions strategies

The workshop  was organized by the Caribbean WaterNet and facilitated in collaboration with The University of the West Indies (UWI), Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C), the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC), the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI).  Nineteen (19) public and private agencies with responsibility or interest in disaster management attended the workshop.

Dr. Michele Singh, the CARDI representative for the Bahamas opened the workshop.

Dr. Michele Singh, the CARDI representative for the Bahamas, in her opening remarks, noted that natural disasters such as drought, hurricanes, earthquakes and floods have had devastating impacts on Caribbean economics and livelihoods over the last decade with damages over amounting to about 3.1billion (US) with catastrophic impacts to the gross domestic product (GDP) of member countries.

She concluded by stating  the possibility of increased occurrence of salt intrusion locally as a result of over-extraction of groundwater for irrigation and the need for increased integration of disaster risk management as the projected impacts of climate change present a great risk to food security of Caribbean countries.