Transportation stakeholders in Guyana view climate-resilient public road infrastructure as critical to the country’s development.
The point was reinforced at a stakeholder workshop hosted by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), which took place in Georgetown on Tuesday, August 22.
The workshop is part of activities being completed under a study, which aims to integrate climate resilience in the road transport sector in Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs) of CDB through the establishment of robust and operational climate resilience sector policies and investment plans in the sector. The study is being implemented under the African Caribbean Pacific-European Union-Caribbean Development Bank Natural Disaster Risk Management (ACP-EU-CDB NDRM) Programme in Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) countries. The Programme, launched in July 2014, supports disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation activities in the CARIFORUM countries.
The existence of persistent threats to the national road infrastructure was underscored during stakeholders’ discussions at the workshop. Many of the Guyanese participants, which included representatives from government ministries, considered a study of this area as critical.
“When all of this is done we need to make it a priority so that it can influence our planning for infrastructure development for roads going forward,” said Janelle Christian, who heads the Office of Climate Change in the Ministry of the Presidency of Guyana.
She added that it was critical for the issue to move from policy to “making it part of our development planning.”
The study will also contribute to mapping many of the main roads in the country’s main Regions, including Regions 3, 4 and 5.
Those roads were severely affected by flooding along Guyana’s coastline in 2015. During that flood, 415 miles of roads were damaged according to the Work Services Group within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Guyana. Damage was estimated at USD16 million, according to Olivia Palin of Acclimatise, a climate risk management firm.