St Lucia - UNDPCC.org

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Saint Lucia: Issues Paper on Climate Change Adaptation & the Water Sector April 20094.0 Key issues in Assessing Investment and Financial FlowsIn assessing investment and financial flows when dealing with climate change adaptationin the water sector a number of issues need to be considered. Water ResourceManagement encompasses a wide range of sectors and is impacted by areas such asagriculture, forestry, urban environment, reservoir development, wetlands, groundwaterreserves. Some of the major issues which must be considered are as follows:1. Inadequate Natural and Water Resource Management.2. Water Resource Availability and Quality – There is a water supply deficit islandwide based on the supply and demand of the various water systems. This isparticularly acute in the dry season. Poor raw & treated water quality is an issue insome areas. It is necessary to assess the impact of agricultural intensification as wellas deforestation on water quality and availability. Soil erosion, land degradation,sedimentation, poor land drainage, uncontrolled rural development, are issuesthat require consideration.3. Current State of the Water Sector i.e. Investments required to ensure thesustainability of the sector with normal variability and no climate change.Currently the Water Supply Infrastructure is inadequate.4. Inadequate Data availability – Current & Historic Rainfall, Stream Flow, Runoff,Water Demand & Supply.5. Absence of Implemented the Water & Land Use Policy as it relates to WaterResource Management.6. Inadequate Institutional and Regulatory Capacity.7. The extent to which non action in relation to the water sector investments willexacerbate the climate change impacts.8. How does one apportion the adaptation costs to climate change.It is clear that climate change will have impacts on the availability of water for thepotable water supply. Even without the effects of climate change and variability there aresignificant challenges to the sector. It should be noted that the First NationalCommunication [FNC] was based on expert judgment and included a situational analysisof the sector. It did not contain detailed analyses based on scenario generation andmodeling of climate change conditions and impacts. The Second NationalCommunication is currently ongoing and the Vulnerability and Adaptation componentwhich has not yet been untaken is expected to produce a more detailed data collectionand analysis of the sector resulting in scenario generation and a quantitativedetermination of the vulnerabilities and associated costs of adaptation.Page | 10
Saint Lucia: Issues Paper on Climate Change Adaptation & the Water Sector April 20094.1 ConstraintsIn the assessment of climate change impacts on the water sector, one of the major issuesis quantifying the resource. It is clear that “if you cannot measure, it you cannot manageit”. It is necessary that the availability of the resource be measured. Only then can oneclearly determine the extent to which climate change will have adverse effects on theresource and the extent to which the adaptation measures need to be effective.It should be noted that the major issues emanating from this analysis are issues that existeven with the potential effects of climate change. It is there difficult to apportion costs ofadaptation measures for climate change impacts as most of these investments wererequired anyway to deal with existing challenges to the sector. There are a number ofconstraints in this sector:• Data availability – there is a paucity of data. It is necessary to have wellestablished records of Current & Historic Rainfall, Stream Flow, Runoff, WaterDemand & Supply. The data available is insufficient to facilitate proper planningand as such the establishment of a system of continuous collection of data isimportant. (Legal Responsibility of the Water Resources Management Agency(WRMA).• Inadequate Water Supply Infrastructure – the infrastructure is over 50 years oldand is in dire need of replacement. (Legal Responsibility of the Water Company(WASCO/ NewCo).• Absence of implemented water & land use policy as it relates to water resourcemanagement and inadequate natural and water resource management. (LegalResponsibility of the Water Resource Management Agency (WRMA)).• Inadequate Institutional and Regulatory Capacity – absence of a functional WaterResources Management Agency and National Water and Sewerage Commission asmandate by law.It should be noted the above mentioned constraints will be dealt with through theestablishment and operationalization of the Water Resource Management Agency(WRMA) and the Water and Sewerage Commission (WSC) and the New WaterCompany (NewCo) which is expected within the next 3 months.4.2 Modeling and Scenario Limitations and/or AssumptionsIt should be noted that there are a number of limitations as it relates to monitoring andscenario generation as follows:1. Availability of data required to develop models based on various scenarios.2. Inadequate national capacity to develop the required models for the region. It istherefore necessary to seek relevant expertise in countries where English is not thePage | 11
Page 2 and 3: Saint Lucia: Issues Paper on Climat
Page 18: Saint Lucia: Issues Paper on Climat

St Lucia - UNDPCC.org

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?