BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — The Barbados-based Caribbean Drought and Precipitation Monitoring Network (CDPMN) says the entire Caribbean basin should monitor their water supply and adopt conservation measures as much as possible as drought situations continue to worsen throughout the region.

In its February edition of the Caribbean drought bulletin released here Friday, the CDPMN said with rainfall varying across the Caribbean during December 2019, the impacts of the current dry season are likely to play out differently across the region.

For example, with record low rainfall in Barbados for 2019 at its two main stations, there is much concern that long term drought can again impact its ground water supply by the end of the dry season in May.

“Similar water availability concerns exist over other islands of the southern and south-eastern Caribbean, Antigua, Cayman Islands, and parts of the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Belize by the end of May. The entire Caribbean basin should monitor their water supply and adopt conservation measures as much as possible,” CDPMN warned.

It said that mixed conditions were seen throughout the islands of the eastern Caribbean in the month of December. CDPMN said a shorter term drought situation by the end of April is evolving in Tobago and might possibly develop or continue in the ABC Islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao) , Barbados,

Belize, Cayman, central Cuba, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Puerto Rico, St Kitts, St Lucia, St Vincent, Sint Maarten/St Martin, Trinidad and the US Virgin Islands.