In TT, water usage is the problem

This country’s mean annual rainfall has decreased by 20 percent. This was the finding of a Climate Change Vulnerability Risk and Capacity Assessment report based on water resources.

This was revealed during a series of National Consultative Meetings from December 4 to 7, facilitated by the ministry through the Multilateral Environmental Agreements Unit of the Environmental Policy Planning Division.

Referring to this and other data from the report, the ministry said, “We have a lot of water available to us and we are not considered water scarce. However we are considered a water stressed nation as we use over 80 percent of all the water available to us. More recently, within the last decade or so, the main issues affecting the availability of our water are pollution and changing rainfall patterns attributed to climate change.” The ministry added that “this has implications for us, as rain is the main input for surface water that accounts for 60 percent of the public water supply while the remainder is sourced from groundwater; 23 percent, and desalination; 17 percent.”

To tackle this problem before it becomes “a more dire issue”, the ministry said it is working with stakeholders such as WASA to analyse TT’s vulnerability to climate change and build the capacity through technical support, inter-agency collaboration, policy development and the use of technology such as geographic information systems.

The ministry said these consultative meetings are meant to “engage stakeholders in an ongoing programme to increase Trinidad and Tobago’s climate resilience...The results of climate risk analyses in these sectors will provide the information required for developing approaches to adapting to climate change, in both directly and indirectly impacted sectors.”

The European Union is providing technical assistance for this programme.