The head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), Mami Mizutori, says “even if lives are saved, disasters do crush livelihoods,”, as she visited some of the areas in north-eastern St. Vincent affected by climate change and the April 2021 eruption of La Soufriere volcano.
Mizutori, who is also the special representative of the Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) she wanted a first-hand view of how the country and affected communities are recovering from the disasters.
“But what we see is that it takes a lot of time and energy and, of course, money to recover and reconstruct,” she said, noting that the eruption occurred during the height of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that killed and infected millions of people across the globe.
“The good news, of course, from the volcano eruption tragedy was that the government, the national authorities for disaster risk reduction, and prevention and response, were sensitized enough, and they could evacuate everybody, which I think is a very good story,” she told CMC in Sandy Bay as she interacted with people who were personally affected by the eruption.
“However, even if lives are saved, disasters do crush livelihoods, as we see here, right now in Pepper Village. So that’s why we believe that it’s very important, the prevention part, don’t build where your livelihood will be totally destroyed, be aware of the hazards that are surrounding you.
“And, of course, at the end of the day, international cooperation needs to come in for both response but also prevention. And so, we want to share this story to many people, governments outside the region as well as a very good example of evacuation but need for more prevention,” Mami Mizutori said.
The senior UN official also visited Georgetown, where the government spent EC$24 million (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) to install a sea defence to help combat the impact of rising sea levels, and housing projects in Orange Hill, where the state is building homes to accommodate people whose homes were destroyed or rendered unsafe by the volcano.
She also visited bridges in Overland and Magum, which have been built to deal with problematic seasonal streams in the area.
She said north eastern St. Vincent is affected by multiple risks, with climate emergency being the big risk driver, along with geophysical hazards and the impact of the pandemics.
“Now, 90 percent of major disasters are related to climate emergency, and not only major ones; even small or medium-sized ones that come after time and time again, and I have seen the sea rise affecting the villages and communities.”
She has also visited Trinidad and Tobago, because there are many regional hubs based there, including the Caribbean Meteorological Organization (CMO) and the Association of Caribbean States. (ACS).
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