Caymanians and residents of these beloved Cayman Islands
Wednesday was observed the world over as the International Day for Disaster Reduction.
We in the Cayman Islands are sensitive to the importance of disaster mitigation. This sensitivity has been heightened, of course, because of our devastating experience with Hurricane Ivan; but we must also certainly be aware of the potential for impact on small island nations of changes and forces in the wider natural and socio-economic environment.
Disaster reduction, therefore, must of necessity be a matter close to the hearts of everyone. And advance preparation must be foremost in all our initiatives.
The government is leading by example. We have committed ourselves to making every new structure tolerant of category five winds and resistant to the accompanying storm surges.
The two new government administration buildings, for which money has been budgeted for preliminary work, will be built to that standard. The three new schools to be built in North Side, West Bay, and George Town will be up to that strength.
The re-built Bodden Town Civic Centre is being renovated to this high storm-tolerant level, and the new one will be built accordingly.
The devastation visited upon that structure in the 2004 storm serves as a good example of why we must build stronger.
Changes are coming to the national building codes.
The government will support the drive for stronger and safer buildings all round by means of effective legislation and regulations.
And while we are particularly sensitive to hurricane threats, we also recognise that the potential for a national disaster is not limited to the onslaught of strong winds and high water.
There is a range of possible calamities that could take on national proportions. These include, but are not restricted to, threats to our livelihood in the finance and tourism sectors. There can be accidents resulting in injury or – God forbid – loss of life to massive numbers of people; a major spill of harmful chemicals or petroleum products in our waters could have devastating impact on marine life and on our economy.
Other slow-moving and largely unnoticed global occurrences such as changes to the pattern of rainfall leading to severe drought may not impact us as directly as other countries, but could certainly have devastating implications for us. There is the phenomenon of global warming. Scientists are warning that this could trigger a rise in sea level. Small islands cannot afford to ignore the potential negative consequences that this could hold for them.
That is why the government has decided to place disaster risk reduction on a platform catering to and planning for all possibilities.
It is just a matter of months before we take to the Legislative Assembly a proposal to establish a national office for hazard management.
This agency is designed to go far beyond the functions of the National Hurricane Committee to which we have been accustomed for many years.
This is not to say that the role of NHC will diminish; to the contrary it is expected that the large number of sub-committees within that organisation will be adapted to disaster reduction and response to an expanded range of possibilities.
So my friends be assured that the government has already taken action – and that this will remain top of our agenda. Our aim is to guide these islands along a path of security through strategies involving both risk-reduction and effective preparation and so to mitigate impact where adversity cannot be avoided.
And one of those mitigating activities must be heightened awareness among our population through observances such as this International Day of Disaster Reduction. The theme selected by the United Nations for the day’s activities is Disaster Risk Reduction Begins at School.
This could not be truer. Knowledge is a major weapon in the fight for reduction of disasters and their impact.
Through the work of NEMA, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, we expect in the near future to see disaster-reduction awareness teaching entrenched in the curriculum of our schools.
There is no better place to start than with the education of our young people about the threats they face — and could face — as they inherit these beloved islands we call home.
But everyone must become sensitised and involved. I appeal to us all today to take stock of where we are in our personal plans for reducing the impact of disasters on our lives and families.
Let us all resolve to give preparation the important place it deserves in our lives, lest we look back in sorrow for the things we could have done to avoid a sad time today or tomorrow.
It was the writer Sydney Harris who said, ‘Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.”
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