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Caribbean gets euro5 million for disaster mitigation plans
Friday, June 19, 2009
THE European Commission on Wednesday announced a euro5-million grant to assist the Caribbean with its disaster mitigation plans for the 2009 hurricane season, which started June 1 and runs until November 30.
The grant was announced as the Second Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction got underway today in Geneva, Switzerland.
The grant, said the EC, was made through its humanitarian aid office (ECHO), as part of its seventh disaster preparedness action plan in the Caribbean.
"Priority will be given to the most vulnerable and exposed communities," said a press release from the EC's Delegation in Kingston.
"Since the programme was launched in 1996, ECHO has allocated more than euro152 million for disaster preparedness in eight regions - the Caribbean, Central America, South America, Central Asia, South Asia, South East Asia, South East Africa and the South West Indian Ocean," the EC release said.
"The commission has long recognised the importance of disaster preparedness and risk reduction. My visits to the areas affected have enabled me to see with my own eyes how the grassroots preparedness schemes we put in place can limit damage and save lives," the release quoted Louis Michel, the EC's development and humanitarian aid commissioner.
The announcement of the EC grant comes on the heels of the address by Jamaica's Prime Minister Bruce Golding to the second global platform for disaster risk reduction in Geneva earlier this week.
Prime Minister Golding told the conference that disaster risk reduction and better management of built environment required resources that many poor countries simply could not find.
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