Published 12:37 IST, November 24th 2019
Caribbean island on track to become world’s first 'hurricane-proof' country
The Caribbean island of Dominica is on path of becoming the world's first hurricane-proof country after the devastation that Hurricane Maria caused in 2017.
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The Caribbean island of Dominica is on the path of becoming the world's first hurricane-proof country. The country's decision comes after the devastation that Hurricane Maria caused in the year 2017 and that sparked the country to completely adapt to changing the climate. The island country is situated just over a distance of 500 miles northeast of Caracas, Venezuela and among a series of islands that connect the Caribbean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean.
CREAD
Climate Resilience Execution Agency of Dominica (CREAD) was created to make sure that every building built after Hurricane Maria will be "climate-proof". It was the agency's job to understand how to hurricane-proof Uniform building codes, improved healthcare facilities, new geothermal energy plants and varied agricultural products.
One of the significant parts of Dominica's plan to become climate resilient is to ban plastic and its reason comes down to infrastructure. The waste collection system handled by the Island country’s government-created privately run Dominica Waste Management Corporation collects all the garbage into a single and already filled up landfill.
Climate Resilience Act
The island country passed a Climate Resilience Act in 2018 but came into effect in 2019. The main objective of this act was to promote fast and cost-effective recovery after a climate-related disaster. The second objective was to make sure that any infrastructure extensively damaged during a climate-related disaster was to be reconstructed in a condition much better than its previous state.
The third objective was to make sure that Dominica will be more responsive to natural hazards causing destruction in the country. The fourth and the final objective was to provide assistance to both public and private sectors to be ready to manage and recover from a devastating climate-related disaster.
Hurricane Erika was the worst storm to have ever hit Dominica, wiping out approximately 90% of the island country’s GDP in 2015. The WTO (World Trade Organization) stated that the Hurricane destroyed over two years' worth of economic output of the country. According to reports, experts are of the opinion that Dominica will be able to return to it’s before the hurricane in about three years of time.
11:00 IST, November 24th 2019