Kim­ber­ly Mack­han

The Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (Cari­com) Heads of Gov­ern­ment have rec­om­mend­ed con­ven­ing a meet­ing to for­malise wa­ter man­age­ment in the re­gion, For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Paula Gopee-Scoon has said.

"With re­spect to the wa­ter re­sources in the com­mu­ni­ty, Heads of Gov­ern­ment con­sid­ered the im­pli­ca­tions of the se­vere drought and re­sul­tant se­vere wa­ter short­age in most Cari­com-mem­ber states," she added. She was speak­ing at a news con­fer­ence yes­ter­day at Knowsley Build­ing to re­port on the Cari­com Heads of Gov­ern­ment meet­ing last week. "It was rec­om­mend­ed that a meet­ing of Cari­com Min­is­ters re­spon­si­ble for wa­ter be con­vened as soon as pos­si­ble to for­malise a re­gion­al strat­e­gy for wa­ter man­age­ment, build­ing on the pro­gramme for work for­mer­ly agreed up­on," Gopee-Scoon said.

She said the out­come of such a meet­ing would be sub­mit­ted to the next reg­u­lar meet­ing of Heads of Gov­ern­ment in Ju­ly. She not­ed that the drought-like con­di­tions in the re­gion were "the re­sult of El Ni­no South­ern Os­cil­la­tion (EN­CO), com­pound­ed by an in­tense sub-trop­i­cal high pres­sure sys­tem over the North At­lantic."