R i s k , t r a n s p a r e n c y a n d s e c u r i t y Wastewater management Commonwealth Governance Handbook 2014/15 122 Even under the current economic circumstances, there is a trend of increased investment in infrastructure such as production wells, water treatment works, pumping installations, leakage reduction initiatives and mains replacement programmes. Water utilities in Dominica, Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica and others are investing, sometimes out of their own resources and sometimes with the help of international financing institutions, in works that extend existing supplies or make them more robust. Jamaica is currently planning to invest US$44 million in upgrading rural water supplies, benefiting 250,000 people over three years in addition to obtaining an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) grant to carry out a rural-water master plan and a review of its water sector policy. Efforts to address institutional weaknesses have not been universally successful nor have the key linkages between land and water management been incorporated into policies and planning. This is probably the second biggest challenge, after economic development, facing the region. The Global Environmental Facility project, Integrated Watershed and Coastal Area Management (IWCAM), prepared integrated water resources management plans for Grenada, Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis, and Antigua and Barbuda. The IWCAM was credited with helping to put into force the LBS Protocol (Protocol Concerning Pollution from Land-Based Sources and Activities), thereby paving the way for the launch of the Caribbean Fund for Wastewater Management (CReW). These initiatives have bolstered efforts to improve data gathering with Barbados, Guyana, Grenada, Saint Lucia and Jamaica, and with implementing national water information systems. Such systems are fundamental in improving overall water management. Conclusion The efficient management of water resources and services continues to be a concern in many small island states in the Caribbean. There are growing concerns over the ability of governments in the region to ensure the good management and provision of water without jeopardising economic growth and the maintenance of social well-being. Data gathering, and information availability and management are major challenges that have been highlighted on many occasions. Furthermore, a lack of data, compounded by barriers to making data available, hampers the understanding of current water vulnerabilities, the ability to plan ahead and the ability to identify appropriate adaptation strategies. Thus far, forward planning has been largely neglected and this is symptomatic of a lack of appreciation of the need for having national water policies. In this respect, Jamaica’s development of a national master water plan serves as an example of what can be done. The reluctance to involve the private sector in a range of activities, such as localised water supply, waste water facilities and outsourcing, needs to be addressed and a conducive environment to facilitate its involvement established. Lastly, the perception has to be addressed that welfare and water are synonymous. Water service providers have to be efficient, well managed and allowed to do their job. This means that they have to be on a sound financial footing. The challenge is to find the balance between appropriate political and regulatory oversight, and the autonomy of water managers and service providers. Compared with 50 years ago, water security in the Caribbean has improved enormously and the achievements are all the more impressive given where the region has come from socially, politically and economically. There are still many challenges to be faced and these are acutely apparent through the impact of natural hazards. However, climate change, in itself, is not the most pressing problem; rather the issue is the macroeconomic conditions of the Caribbean since it is this that determines the creation and availability of resources – natural, human intellectual and financial – needed to facilitate a water-secure Caribbean. Endnotes 1 In October 2012, at the Eighth High-Level Session Ministerial Forum on Water, the importance of ensuring long-term water security as a driver for economic and social development, and the urgent need to address water scarcity in the Caribbean region were recognised (GWP-C, 2012). 2 See Hall, T. et al., 2012. ‘Future climate of the Caribbean from super-high-resolution atmospheric general circulation model’. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 113, pp. 271–287. 3 Barbados is utilising close to 100 per cent of its available water resources; Saint Lucia has a water supply deficit of approximately 35 per cent; Nevis of 40 per cent; Trinidad has had a water supply deficit since 2000 (WASA, 2005); Jamaica is projected to experience deficits in supplies to areas of important economic activity by 2015 (GoJ, 2011); Antigua and Barbuda is reliant on desalination to meet water demands; and in Dominica, Grenada, and St Vincent and the Grenadines demand exceeds supply during the dry season due to reduction in stream flows (UWI, 2012). 4 Situations are more complex at sub-national levels, with disparities between available surface and groundwater resources, their spatial distribution and the location of centres of demand. This can give rise to situations where, as in the case of Jamaica, some of the water resources are exploited beyond their renewable levels. This is particularly the case for groundwater, for which changes in recharge rates due to climate change are likely to have severe supply implications. 5 Desalination as a source of supply is being used on 14 islands and in some cases, such as the Cayman Islands and Aruba, there is little other choice available. In other instances, desalination plants supplement existing resources or are a drought-proofing measure, such as in Barbados. There has been a growing tendency to push desalination as a solution for water supply difficulties. The attraction is that such plants can be built relatively quickly and are often outsourced to the private sector under long-term build–own–operate contracts. The coming into force of the Cartagena Convention’s Protocol on Land-Based Sources of Marine Pollution (LBS) has had a positive impact as it has allowed the development of innovative approaches to funding the expansion of waste water services through the Caribbean Regional Fund for Wastewater Management (CReW). The objective of the CReW is to mobilise additional funding for waste water treatment investments. The fund is intended to support the improvement of institutional, policy, legal and regulatory frameworks for waste water management as well as capacity-building for the identification, evaluation and maintenance of appropriate waste water management technologies.
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