Volunteers attached to the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) were last week told at a workshop of this country’s vulnerabilities in relation to health disaster risks owing to its porous borders and officials’ inability to monitor health-related cases.
The some 20 volunteers are part of the CDC’s core group of its soon to be established Volunteer Corps. The workshop was held at the CDC headquarters at Thomas Lands. In a release, the CDC said during the workshop, participants gained valuable insights into the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) from a presentation done by one of CDEMA’s programme officers, Gayle Drakes of Barbados and learned about roles and responsibilities of the CDC and the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) initiatives being developed and implemented from CDC Operations and Training Officer Major Kester Craig.

Participants at the CDC capacity building workshop

In her presentation, Drakes shared critical information on vulnerability and disaster risk, pointing out that, the high degree of exposure to a range of hazards, fragile ecosystems often linked to economic and social development, large populations in hazard prone areas, coastal positioning of major functions and economic activity, small open economies, poverty, limited capacity and resources and institutional weaknesses resulted in the Caribbean being the second most vulnerable region in the world for disasters.
Touching a bit on the history of CDEMA, she explain that the organisation’s functions, which include, mobilising and coordinating disaster relief; mitigating or eliminating, as far as practicable, the immediate consequences of disasters in participating states and providing immediate and coordinated response by means of emergency disaster relief to any affected participating state.
“CDEMA interacts on numerous levels simultaneously,” she said. “CDEMA works with national disaster organisations, NGOs, regional response organisations, donor agencies, specialised technical agencies, the private sector and other resource agencies.”  CDEMA’s work is facilitated by a Regional Response Mechanism (RRM) which involves specialised plans, regional warehouses, national disaster plans, a regional coordination plan and other mechanisms.
Drakes also presented and clarified the concept of Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM). CDM, she explained, is the current approach being used across the region in relation to DRRM. “Traditionally, the Caribbean has always approached disaster mitigation from the response perspective. However, the realities of the involvement of disaster management organisations across the region have informed the new perspective which encompasses mitigation and prevention, preparedness, response, recovery and rehabilitation.”
CDM is the management of all hazards, through all phases of the disaster management cycle, by all peoples, public and private sectors, all segments of civil society and the general population, and involves risk reduction and management, and the integration of vulnerability assessment into the development planning process. Drake’s presentation was very well received and was followed up by a lively discussion session.
Meanwhile, Major Craig in his presentation addressed the issue of vulnerabilities. He highlighted that Guyana’s porous borders makes it difficult to monitor health related cases; the preponderance of old wooden buildings that are located close to each other; the increased number of vehicles on the roadways; the small boats which use limited safety precautions while traversing the rivers; lack of radars to monitor and direct aircraft in Guyana’s airspace; insufficient Early Warning Systems for the entire country and chemical spills which occur in mining areas. He noted that these were more likely to result in higher negative impacts because 75 per cent of the population lived on the Coastlands which is generally one to three metres below sea level, and also because 70 per cent of Guyana’s Gross Domestic Product  is earned in this region of the country.
In outlining what is being done to reduce risks in Guyana, Major Craig pointed to the Conservancy Adaptation Project (CAP) aimed at improving infrastructure and increasing storage capacity of the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC), various sea defence projects to deal with sea level rise as a result of climate change and temperature variations.
These include, the Mangrove Restoration Project aimed at the protection and development of sustainable mangrove forests, capacity development of the CDC and other stakeholders (training over 900 persons from 2005 – present); the development of disaster risk management systems, plans and policies; land, air and maritime search and rescue plan;  national flood preparedness and response plan; damage assessment and needs analysis policy, framework and plan; early warning system protocol; national and regional health preparedness and response plans; environmental protection agency sector plan etc; and the development of community and regional disaster preparedness and response plans.
He spoke of the following disaster risk management projects that are being executed by the Civil Defence Commission, notably the flood analysis of the Mahaica River based on the outputs of the land and flood surveys and other data, preparation of flood hazard maps, studies and exercise of community disaster prevention activities in the pilot community, installation of hydrological equipment for early flood warning system and the  construction of hydrological data-base to be stored at the Caribbean Institute  for Meteorology  and Hydrology (CIMH). The comprehensive and interactive presentations provided a wealth of information and new knowledge for the participants.
The CDC Volunteer Corps is scheduled to be formally launched later this year following the completion of several aspects of its planning and development phase. It is envisaged that this corps of volunteers will augment and enhance the CDC’s capacity and capabilities with regard effective and efficient execution of its programmes and projects.