“Regional Organizations Collaborate to Improve Wastewater Management in Jamaica”

Participants at the Training Workshop held in Kingston, Jamaica on March 25-26, 2008

News Release

        “Regional Organizations Collaborate to Improve Wastewater Management in Jamaica”

As a result of a recently concluded training workshop held in Kingston, Jamaica, local managers from the public and private sectors are now better equipped to select, plan and finance improved wastewater management systems. 

Workshop participants were drawn from the Ministries of Health and Environment, Housing, and agencies responsible for water and sanitation in Jamaica including Rural Water Supply Limited and the National Water Commission.

The training provided participants with analytical tools, information and skills on objective-oriented planning; innovative technological and financial approaches; stakeholder involvement, presentation techniques and reporting.

The workshop was held from March 25^th – 28^th 2008 at the Jamaica Conference Centre and was coordinated by several leading environmental organizations including the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute (CEHI), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) through its Regional Coordinating Unit for the Caribbean Environment Programme (UNEP CAR/RCU) and Global Programme of Action (UNEP GPA), and the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education. 

In her opening address to the participants, the Executive Director of CEHI, Mrs. Patricia Aquing noted that water issues had become such a high priority in the region that it would be featured prominently in the Meeting of Environment Ministers that is scheduled for the week of April 14^th in Guyana.  She also noted the severe impacts of land-based sources of pollution on the coastal waters of small island developing states (SIDS).  “According to UNEP Global Environmental Outlook 3 report, 90% of our wastewaters are discharged untreated into the Caribbean Sea.” 

Mr. Nelson Andrade Colmenares, Coordinator of the Regional Coordinating Unit for the Caribbean Environment Programme (UNEP CAR/RCU) based in Jamaica, reminded participants that more than 2.6 billion people – about 40 percent of the world’s population - lack what most of us take for granted: a toilet.   The Millennium Development Sanitation target, set in 1990, aims to reduce by half the proportion of people without access to sanitary facilities by the year 2015. Making this target a reality is critical to economic growth, people’s health, women’s empowerment, and environmental sustainability.

The training was even more meaningful given that the United Nations has declared 2008, the year of Sanitation.  In order to ensure that there is no further threat to sensitive coastal waters and marine ecosystems and increased risks to human health due to the discharge of large volumes of untreated wastewater, there needs to be careful planning and development of appropriate wastewater systems for Jamaica. 

According to Mr. Ian Gage, Project Manager of the Rural Water Supply Programme, who spoke on behalf of participants at the conclusion of the workshop, the course provided “technical and managerial knowledge and skills and would enable persons to work more closely with their communities in the development and implementation of future wastewater projects.”

The course was the second of its kind in the Caribbean, the first having been delivered  in Suriname and was made possible with funding from the European Union ACP Water Facility and the United Nations Development Programme – Global Environment Facility (UNDP-GEF).  The next of this series of training courses will be held in Barbados from April 21^st – 25^th 2008 for participants from Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean.

For further information please contact:

Patricia Aquing
Executive Director
Caribbean Environmental Health Institute
P.O. Box 1111
The Morne, Castries
SAINT LUCIA, W.I.
Tel:  (758) 452-2501 or 1412 Ext. 235, (758) 453-2931
Fax: (758) 453-2721

or

Nelson Andrade
Coordinator
UNEP CAR/RCU
14-20 Port Royal Street
Kingston
JAMAICA, W.I.
Tel: (876) 922 9267-9
Fax: (876) 922 9292
E mail: nac@cep.unep.org