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Combatting the Terror of Flooding

May 2, 2014 by Evan Cayetano - Julian Belgrave Leave a Comment


Flooding is by no means a problem experienced alone by those in tropical climates, but it afflicts the lives of people across the world. In February of this year, we saw the villages of Moorland and Fordgate in the United Kingdom besieged by flood waters and the grim impact of flooding in Burundi. Further underscoring the case that flooding does not only lead to hefty financial losses is what we saw take place in Jakarta, Indonesia, where its devastating effects included fatalities and mass displacement.

Possible Negative Effects of Flooding

chart

In the shores of Trinidad and Tobago, those who commute to or reside in the City of Port of Spain (POS) are not strangers to the calamity that is flooding. In fact, the population as a whole perennially anticipates headlines depicting the harsh reality faced by many during the country’s rainy season from June to December. Thus, it comes as no surprise that while walking along some of the streets in the heart of the nation’s capital, it is not uncommon to see some sort of flood barrier neatly tucked next to doorways.

Banner image with question

On January 27th 2014, the IDB formally embarked on an effort to address the problem of flooding in the City of Port of Spain with the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. The name of the project is the “Flood Alleviation and Drainage Program” and its objective is to minimize the negative impacts from the lack of or insufficiency of urban drainage infrastructure in critical areas of the country’s capital.

IMG_7397
photo by Kamau Joseph

Not only will the program support the improvement of catchment management through works on drainage infrastructure, it will also target the improvement of mobility of the population within the central areas of POS through a linear park, and also work towards strengthening the agency responsible for drainage at the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources. Additionally, the program will have climate change adaptation mainstreamed into the designs of the infrastructure works to be executed, which is an innovation in the context of Trinidad and Tobago’s efforts to mitigate their susceptibility to the negative impacts of climate change. The intervention will also, ex ante, address disaster risks associated with high rainfall events that affect the built environment of Port of Spain.

Another important innovation is the planned creative use of the built drainage infrastructure to overlay the aforementioned “linear park”. This linear park will provide a green space for recreation, social interactions and local economic development opportunities in the peri-urban communities.

IMG_7404photo by Kamau Joseph


Filed Under: Climate Change & Environment, Trinidad and Tobago Tagged With: alleviation, caribbean, drainage systems, environment, flood waters, flooding, high rainfall, natural disaster, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, tropical climate

Evan Cayetano

Evan Cayetano is a water and sanitation specialist with the IDB since 1997. He has prepared and supervised loans and technical cooperation grants in the water sector for The Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana. He is the Team Leader for the ongoing Regional Strategic Action Plan for the Water Sector in the Caribbean to Develop Resilience to the Impacts of Climate Change (RSAP) and the focal point for the IDB Water and Sanitation Division for the Caribbean. Mr. Cayetano holds a M.Sc. in Coastal Zone Management from Florida Institute of Technology, a B.Sc. in Marine Biology from Texas A&M University.

Julian Belgrave

Julian Belgrave is a national of Barbados. He is a certified Project Management Professional with the Project Management Institute and holds a postgraduate degree in Environment and Development from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom and an undergraduate degree in Economics and Management from the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies in Barbados. Julian has more than 20 years’ experience working in economic development with a focus on public sector investment programming and has in-depth operations knowledge of multilateral and bilateral development institutions. During his professional career he has led teams with oversight of the planning and execution of numerous development projects across different priority sectors. Also during this period, Julian provided technical and policy advice to Permanent Secretaries, Ministers and the Cabinet on national priority areas and specific public-sector interventions. Julian has also provided technical and policy advice on matters related to public sector investment programming and priorities setting. He has functioned as the acting representative of the IDB in Country Office Jamaica. Previously, he worked as the Chief of Operations with the Inter-American Development Bank supporting the Bank’s strategic role in tackling some of the key development issues in Jamaica and in Trinidad and Tobago. In both cases, he was able to leverage assigned resources and manage relationships to achieve annual targets in two very different but equally challenging country contexts. Julian is currently Senior Operations Specialist based in the Caribbean Countries Department at IDB Group headquarters. .

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Caribbean Dev Trends

We provide unique and timely insights on the Caribbean and its political, social, and economic development. At the IDB, we strive to improve lives in the Caribbean by creating vibrant and resilient economies where people are safe, productive and happy.

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