The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

SUSTAINABLE fresh-water projects in Andros and Exuma were said yesterday to be “very critical” during the official ceremony of UNESCO’s eighth Meeting of National Committees and Focal Points of Latin American and Caribbean for the International Hydrological Programme (IHP).

Education Minister Jeffery Lloyd, who led the Bahamian delegation at the regional conference being held at the British Colonial Hilton, this week, revealed that the Andros and Exuma projects are being spearheaded by UNESCO’s GRAPHIC programme and Eco-Hydrology Initiative.

In his keynote address Monday, Mr Lloyd contended the responsibilities associated with water conservation, water pollution, drought, energy and water, hydro-power and all related topics ought to be matters of national importance in the Bahamas due to its geographic and ecological make up.

Mr Lloyd, the member of Parliament for South Beach, further insisted that as an island nation, the Bahamas’ topography doesn’t permit sufficient water run-off and as such, limits ground-water.

“For us, ground water is a critical and a vital resource. And as a result of this, we therefore have to accept and understand that this resource is crucial to our social, economic and demographic reality,” Mr Lloyd told those in attendance.

He added: “Ours is a country that is dependent on tourism and the point of this, the vitality of it, recognition of its limited nature is an indispensable recognition of our part.

“Our increasing population growth and future economic growth continues to put additional pressure on this limited resource. And that is why we pay most attention to climate changes in this region or global climate changes because they threaten our country’s sustainability as far as water resources are concerned.

“As a part of our developmental goals in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, we pay very close attention and have applied critical and crucial strategies to ensure the intelligent and proactive use of all of our natural resources, but more importantly and most importantly, water.

“This is why we have labelled fresh ground water resources as a strategic national resource,” he indicated.

Mr Lloyd added that in the Bahamas, due to limitations of fresh ground water, successive governments have worked to streamline seawater reverse osmosis techniques as a means of “sustenance.”

Between 2015-2017, activities within the framework of IHP have at the national level for the Bahamas have resulted in the establishment of the North Andros Water Resource Area (NAWRA) in Andros and the Lake Victorian Programme (LVP) in Exuma.

NAWRA, according to Mr Lloyd, is important to the Bahamas because it can help in promoting and advancing sustainable ground water management throughout our country and our region.

He said the initiative will aid in the assessment and monitoring of the dynamic conditions of Andros’ fresh water lens — largest repository of fresh water in the Bahamas, while working to understand the dynamic geometry of Andros lens, identify areas of greater sustainability for both resource protection and fresh water development and to forecast the impact of changing climate conditions, sea-rise levels and storm surge and fresh water lens stability and longevity.

UNESCO’s GRAPHIC programme seeks to improve understanding of how groundwater interacts within the global water cycle, how it supports ecosystems and humankind and, in turn, responds to complex and coupled pressures of human activity and climate change.

Additionally, LVP will look to set up a local mangrove preserve which will sustain an appropriate buffer zone around the pond and nearby channels.

UNESCO IHP is one of the primary events associated with the United Nation’s intergovernmental programme devoted to water research, water resources management, and education and capacity building.

During the first 50-years of the UNESCO Hydrological Programme important achievements in water and eco-system management have been addressed in Latin America and the Caribbean.

UNESCO IHP is seeking to address the issues of natural resources and disasters in our region and we hope that over the next few days, this eighth strategic plan will focus on several very important areas — water disasters and hydrological change, ground water in a changing environment, addressing water security and quality, water and human settlements of the future, eco-hydrology engineering harmony for a sustainable world and water education key for water-security.

The conference will continue through Friday.