Inter-American Development Bank
facebook
twitter
youtube
linkedin
instagram
Abierto al públicoBeyond BordersCaribbean Development TrendsCiudades SosteniblesEnergía para el FuturoEnfoque EducaciónFactor TrabajoGente SaludableGestión fiscalGobernarteIdeas MatterIdeas que CuentanIdeaçãoImpactoIndustrias CreativasLa Maleta AbiertaMoviliblogMás Allá de las FronterasNegocios SosteniblesPrimeros PasosPuntos sobre la iSeguridad CiudadanaSostenibilidadVolvamos a la fuente¿Y si hablamos de igualdad?Home
Citizen Security and Justice Creative Industries Development Effectiveness Early Childhood Development Education Energy Envirnment. Climate Change and Safeguards Fiscal policy and management Gender and Diversity Health Labor and pensions Open Knowledge Public management Science, Technology and Innovation  Trade and Regional Integration Urban Development and Housing Water and Sanitation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Caribbean Development Trends

  • HOME
  • CATEGORIES
    • Agribusiness
    • Antigua and Barbuda
    • Barbados
    • BehaviorChange
    • Belize
    • Bermuda
    • biodiversity
    • Blockchain
    • Caribbean
    • Caribbean Culture and Media
    • Climate Change
    • Creative Economy
    • Crime Prevention and Citizen Security
    • Data and Knowledge
    • De-risking
    • Dominica
    • Dutch
    • Early Childhood Development
    • Economic Growth
    • Education Policy
    • energy
    • entrepreneurship
    • Environmental and Climate Change
    • Events
    • Extractives
    • Finance
    • Fiscal Rules
    • gender
    • Governance and Regulatory Policy Reforms
    • Grenada
    • Guyana
    • Haiti
    • Health
    • Health Policy
    • Hurricane
    • Hurricane Irma
    • infrastructure
    • Innovation and change
    • Intellectual Property
    • IWD
    • Jamaica
    • JumpCaribbean
    • Labor
    • Labour Markets
    • MOOC
    • Music
    • Natural Disasters
    • Nurturing Institutions
    • OECS
    • Podcast
    • Poverty
    • Private Sector and Entrepreneurship
    • Saint Kitts and Nevis
    • Saint Lucia
    • Saint Vincent and Grenadines
    • skills
    • Sports for Development
    • Suriname
    • Technology
    • The Bahamas
    • The Blue Economy
    • Transportation
    • Tourism
    • Trinidad and Tobago
    • Uncategorized
    • VAWG
    • Webinar
    • women
    • Women for Change
    • youth
  • Country Offices
    • Bahamas
    • Barbados
    • Guyana
    • Jamaica
    • Suriname
    • Trinidad and Tobago
  • Press Releases
    • Bahamas
    • Barbados
    • Guyana
    • Jamaica
    • Suriname
    • Trinidad and Tobago
  • Authors

Talisman the Goat and the Search for Water

May 17, 2021 by Alison Binger Christie Leave a Comment


Evan Cayetano, IDB Senior Water and Sanitation Specialist reads John Knight’s poem on Water.

With its invigorating vegetation, rivers, waterfalls, and aqua jeweled-toned seas, Jamaica, formerly Xaymaca – the land of wood and water – is world-renowned for its beauty, watercourses and seas that keep visitors and locals revitalized with every refreshing dip.

Celebrating World Water Day

As a reminder for everyone to play their part in preserving this environmental heritage, the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) Jamaica country office celebrated World Water Day 2021 in a unique and inclusive way. We launched Talisman La Cabra (the goat), a Spanish/English children’s book written and illustrated by renowned Jamaican contemporary artist, illustrator, and sculptor Laura Facey CD. 

A Jamaican environmental tale, Talisman the Goat is a delightful story of an unusual goat called ‘Talisman’, who lives on Goat Island – the once ancient home of the Tainos – amongst endemic plants and endangered wildlife such as the iguana. All this while experiencing the effects of climate change.

At the launch, which featured sign language interpretation, children read excerpts in Spanish, Braille, and English and took a captivated audience on Talisman’s exciting journey to the mainland as he searched for water.

Excerpts of Talisman the Goat read by children in English, Spanish, and Braille.

Talisman the Goat resonates because climate change creates tough realities for many. For centuries civilizations have been built around watercourses and people have always been on the move in search of water. The UN Refugee Agency cites environmental hazards such as “abnormally heavy rainfall, prolonged droughts, desertification, environmental degradation, sea-level rise and cyclones” as some of the reasons why “more than 20 million people leave their homes and move to other areas in their countries each year.”

Jamaica – and the wider Caribbean – is susceptible to some of these climate shocks, which include flooding and coastal erosion caused by hurricanes and prolonged drought conditions, resulting in water restrictions, especially in urban areas. Some rivers have already dried up or become intermittent in their flow.

Talisman La Cabra highlights these harsh realities, the importance of water for life and the need for us to protect, preserve, and conserve our natural resources so we can all enjoy and have use of this life-saving commodity, especially during these COVID times.

Water and the importance of mangroves

On his journey, Talisman encounters mangrove trees in the coastal area and even though these trees are found in saltwater, they do require fresh water for survival, said  Gerard Alleng, IDB’s Climate Change Senior Specialist.

“The same freshwater that Talisman the Goat was looking for is essential for the health and growth of these systems. They obtain their supply of freshwater through different internal mechanisms, but for these mechanisms to work, they require access to fresh water. Reductions or restrictions to this supply can have serious negative impacts and result in the loss or degradation of the services to other natural systems and, of course, to us. As the access to water is critical to the health of these ecosystems, it is imperative that the flow of water to them is not impeded and that the quality of water that they receive is not highly contaminated. As to us water is life, so is it to them,” said Alleng.

The IDB is involved with wetlands conservation and management as part of sustainability and climate change programming. “The Clarendon Blue Carbon Mangrove Restoration Project” the largest mangrove restoration project in the Caribbean is being undertaken in partnership with the University of the West Indies Solutions for Developing Countries and the UK Government. A core element of that restoration effort is the direct connection between water availability, access, flow, and functioning.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/559348707

How water affects our lives and the advocacy role of storytelling

Conservation, managing leaks, and distribution of water are important, according to Eleanor Jones, Chairman of Environmental Management Solutions. She pointed out that it is not unusual for people to live near rivers and still have little access to water. “There are many areas in Jamaica that are starved for water…  some of these areas have rivers. The big upper River Minho watershed …many people in those communities have to travel far distances to pull up water from a spring that may be in major depression.”

Commending Laura Facey for her work on Talisman the Goat, Environmentalist, Diana McCaulay, said that using culture and storytelling is a very useful way to promote improved water management and preserve the country’s environmental heritage. “Whilst scientific information appeals to the minds, which may not always work, heartwarming stories such as Talisman the Goat appeals to young minds and can cause change.”

If Pearnel Charles Jnr, the Minister of Housing, Urban Renewal, Environment, and Climate Change, will have his way, Talisman the Goat will travel far and wide across Jamaica. He recommends the book for young people so they can better understand biodiversity and water security issues.

Minister Pearnel Charles reflects on the impact of Talisman on his family and getting the book in Schools.

Finally, Therese Turner-Jones, IDB General Manager for the Country Caribbean Group and Country Representative for Jamaica said, “I just love how we managed to combine cultural aspects, literature, art, children in this exercise to create awareness about the need to save water and that water is life.” She urged everyone to play their part in conserving the precious commodity and protecting our watersheds; whether by water harvesting, water conservation, planting trees, keeping water sources clean, and engaging in protective land and environmental practices. All these can help to preserve our environment today that will help to provide the water we need tomorrow to live and save lives!

To read about IDB’s impact on the water and other key sectors in Jamaica, check out this magazine.


Filed Under: Arts, Culture & Creativity, Climate Change, Climate Change & Environment, Jamaica

Alison Binger Christie

Alison Christie Binger is a Communications Consultant at the Inter-American Development Bank based in Jamaica. A multi-award winning Senior Strategic Integrated Marketing Communications Management Professional, she previously served as Communications Consultant with the World Bank in the Finance, Trade and Competitiveness Practice for the Entrepreneurial Programme for Innovation in the Caribbean which spanned 14 CARICOM countries. She is a former Director- at- large for the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Canada District 2 Region, and a Vice President of the IABC Caribbean. She is a past twice elected President of the Public Relations Society of Jamaica, and former Consultant, Director and Adjunct Faculty for the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communications at the University of the West Indies (UWI). She holds a MBA in International Business from the Nova South Eastern University, a BA in Languages and Social Sciences from the UWI, a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing and Physical Distribution from the Maastricht School of Management (MSM) in the Netherlands; Post Graduate Certificates respectively in Entrepreneurship and Job Creation- (MSM) and Universidad del Pacifico, Lima-Peru, and Applied/ Advanced International Management from the Swedish Institute of Management. She also holds a Certificate in Digital Marketing, Customer Engagement, Planning and Analytics from Colombia Business School, USA. She currently serves as a Board Member of the National Resuscitation Council of Jamaica.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Follow Us

Subscribe

Search

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.

Similar posts

  • World Water Day
  • A New Chapter of Engagement
  • Jamaica Nuff Problem mon!
  • A glimpse of what the Caribbean could be…
  • Learning about Jamaica’s Forests by Hiking the Blue Mountains

Footer

Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo
facebook
twitter
youtube
youtube
youtube

    Blog posts written by Bank employees:

    Copyright © Inter-American Development Bank ("IDB"). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons IGO 3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives. (CC-IGO 3.0 BY-NC-ND) license and may be reproduced with attribution to the IDB and for any non-commercial purpose. No derivative work is allowed. Any dispute related to the use of the works of the IDB that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the UNCITRAL rules. The use of the IDB's name for any purpose other than for attribution, and the use of IDB's logo shall be subject to a separate written license agreement between the IDB and the user and is not authorized as part of this CC- IGO license. Note that link provided above includes additional terms and conditions of the license.


    For blogs written by external parties:

    For questions concerning copyright for authors that are not IADB employees please complete the contact form for this blog.

    The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IDB, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent.

    Attribution: in addition to giving attribution to the respective author and copyright owner, as appropriate, we would appreciate if you could include a link that remits back the IDB Blogs website.



    Privacy Policy

    Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

    Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo

    Aviso Legal

    Las opiniones expresadas en estos blogs son las de los autores y no necesariamente reflejan las opiniones del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, sus directivas, la Asamblea de Gobernadores o sus países miembros.

    facebook
    twitter
    youtube