KINGSTON, Jamaica — The United Nations Environment Programme Caribbean Environment Programme (UNEP-CEP) is partnering with the Ministry of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change as it commemorates International Day of Forests, World Water Day and World Meteorological Day this weekend.

The three-day commemoration opens with a one-day exposition on the lawns of Devon House on Friday, March 21, celebrated as International Day of Forests. UNEP-CEP will participate in the expo with its own educational campaign to raise awareness to the importance of environmental protection with a focus on integrated water resources management, including management of wastewater.

The focus on water, UNEP-CEP explained in a media release, is in line with research which has suggested that countries of the wider Caribbean region, like Barbados, Haiti and the Dominican Republic are among the countries which will likely experience water stress in 2025. By definition, water stress refers to the situation in which the volume of water available fails to meet the demands of the population as a result of pollution of water bodies, irregular rainfall, longer periods of drought, saltwater intrusion and the overharvesting of aquifers.

“Improving the management of wastewater, in particular, offers opportunities not only to safeguard water quality but also to use wastewater as a resource. In that regard, UNEP-CEP, through its partnership with the Global Environment Facility’s project on wastewater — the Caribbean Regional Fund for Wastewater Management (GEF CReW), will highlight wastewater as part of the commemoration of World Water Day, on March 22,” the release said.

According to UNEP, the 2009 Caribsave report declared that 84 per cent of Jamaica’s exploitable water comes from groundwater sources like wells, streams, lakes and rivers. Its availability and quality, therefore, are subject to climatic conditions.

UNEP-CEP said further that the scarcity of freshwater resources has the potential to affect Jamaica’s social and economic development, since the local agricultural sector relies on 75 per cent of the local water supply.

Christopher Corbin, Programme Officer for the Assessment and Management of Environmental Pollution sub-programme at UNEP-CEP, reported that Small Island Developing States like Jamaica will have to be creative in managing their water resources in the face of all of these uncertainties and UNEP-CEP remains committed to helping countries like Jamaica to do that through projects such as the GEF CReW.

Nelson Andrade Colmenares added that UNEP CEP is moving to develop new projects that will assist in identifying and implementing appropriate technologies so that more people can have access to safe and reliable water supplies and improved sanitation.

The World Water Day theme Water and Energy is intended to raise awareness about the linkages between water and energy and also to highlight the lack of access to safe drinking water, adequate sanitation, sufficient food and energy services.

“UNEP is the voice for the environment in the United Nations system,” the release said. “It is committed to addressing these problems through partnering with governments, civil society and the general public in policy implementation and collective action”.