Roofs to Reefs programme advances climate resilience efforts

In a push to fortify Barbados against the escalating threats of climate change, the Roofs to Reefs Programme is intensifying its efforts to secure vital funding for vulnerable communities, aiming to retrofit homes and enhance overall resilience, the government programme’s director said on Friday.

This initiative underscores the nation’s commitment to building a climate-resilient future, where no community is left behind.

Speaking during a Barbados Town Planning Society webinar, titled Building a Climate-Resilient Barbados from Roofs to Reefs, Ricardo Marshall, director of the Roofs to Reefs Programme in the Office of the Prime Minister, outlined a number of key initiatives currently underway to strengthen the country’s resilience against climate change and natural disasters, particularly for vulnerable citizens.

“We’ve been working with the Ministry of Housing, Lands, and Maintenance; they have actually been doing evaluations of homes across Barbados… The Urban and Rural Development Commission have also been working in that area, and we have been working with social care agencies to identify persons with critical needs,” he said. “We are also in discussions with a number of private financiers right now to provide additional funding for vulnerable persons. We are also working on a programme with the Ministry of Health on removing pit latrines and replacing them with waterborne facilities. It is a laborious task but one that we think is really critical to be done because a country is really, at the end of the day, only as vulnerable as its most vulnerable persons.”

The Roofs to Reefs Programme, first launched in 2021, is designed to improve both living conditions and terrestrial and marine ecosystems, ensuring Barbados can better withstand climate-related threats and recover more quickly from disasters.

Marshall further explained that currently the Ministry of Home Affairs was also playing its part in assisting vulnerable persons in protecting their homes.

He said: “We have been working with the Ministry of Home Affairs on a project called Strap It, which aims, through the production and installation of a kit, to improve the roofs of existing structures. But the first thing we are doing is evaluating. You start at the roof, you look at the roof tie-in system, then you look at the windows and the doors, you look at the foundation, you look at the location relative to flooding and stormwater, and in those ways, we are trying to improve.”

Marshall also revealed that efforts were underway to expand financing for housing projects, particularly for vulnerable individuals, and to encourage sustainable building practices among both small and large contractors.

“We are getting additional financing now to be able to expand our vulnerable persons’ housing so that we can reduce the vulnerability for those most vulnerable amongst us. We are also trying to encourage both smaller and larger contractors to build in a more sustainable way,” he said.

(SB)