Coastal management reform on the cards

Government is ramping up efforts to address this country’s coastal vulnerabilities in the face of increased threats from climate change, and to this end over 100 stakeholders are meeting this week to shape policy in this regard.

The series of meetings which began today at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, is geared at gathering information on a draft policy paper, which summarises methods to achieve coastal resilience; criteria for redefining boundaries of the Coastal Zone Management as well as updating the Coastal Zone Management Act.

Speaking to reporters after the opening session this morning, Deputy Director of the Coastal Zone Management, Antonio Rowe, explained that his agency has already identified the vulnerable coastline areas from the west and south coast in order to determine and implement the most feasible mitigating measures within the next two years.

“We need an integrated approach to coastal zone management and to reduce the exposure of the critical coastline infrastructure to hazards such as storm surge, coastal erosion, sea level rise etc.” said Rowe.

He added, “When you look at the amount of critical infrastructure that is actually situated in the coastline, it’s huge. We are talking about tourism plants, residential properties as well as Government properties. In addition, if we look at inundated areas (how far inland storm surge goes) storm surge has the potential to impact low lying areas such as the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.”

Rowe contended that while costings for these mitigating measures are still to be determined, it will come down to a decision between spending money on prevention or spending monies on repairing the damage after a natural disaster.
colvillemounsey@barbadostoday.bb