(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) continues to put in place effective mechanisms towards ensuring that the Region adopts a harmonized approach to securing, managing and protecting its water resources.

To this end, the Consortium of CARICOM Institutions on Water – the body tasked with responsibility for developing a Common Water Framework for the Community - is holding it second meeting in Saint Lucia, starting on Tuesday, 25 January 2011.

The Consortium was established in 2008 at a Special Meeting of CARICOM’s Council of Trade and Economic Development (COTED) to assist Member States with developing and implementing their Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) Plans.

The Consortium comprises representatives from the CARICOM Secretariat, the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), Caribbean Environmental Health Institute (CEHI) Caribbean Basin Water Management Programme (CBWMP) Caribbean Waternet, the CARICOM Climate Change Centre, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Caribbean Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA), regional universities of Guyana, Suriname and the West Indies and the Institute of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology.

Its Terms of Reference were approved at the Joint Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development and the Council for Trade and Economic Development in October 2010.

At the three-day Meeting in Castries, Saint Lucia, environment and water management specialists who make up the Consortium will commence the major task of developing the Common Water Framework for the Community.

In addition, the Consortium of water management experts will develop its consolidated work programme for 2011 -2012 and will also discuss proposals for setting up a virtual clearing house and library of water resources projects across the Region. This will be done in an effort to reduce project duplication and enhance the regional benefits from executed projects, particularly where commonalities exist within Member States.

There are also plans to develop a regional water resources skills database which would be available to organizations and governments seeking specialized expertise, and to identify capacity deficiencies within the Region. Where applicable, the Meeting will review existing databases that could be modified or strengthened to meet this requirement.

Recognizing the critical importance of resource mobilization in managing the Community’s water, the Consortium will also be expected to endorse the resource mobilization strategy proposed by the CARICOM Secretariat.

The three-day meeting, which opens at the Bay Gardens Hotel in Rodney Bay, will be addressed by Mr. Garfield Barnwell, CARICOM Secretariat’s Director of Sustainable Development and Mr. Vincent Sweeney, Regional Project Coordinator, Global Environment Facility – Integrated Watershed Coastal Areas Management (GEF-IWCAM).

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org