by Emmanuel H. Joseph
Government Information Service
A national workshop for Dominica on strategic planning for sustainable development was convened here on Monday 12th April, 2010. This workshop forms part of a wider regional project on strategic planning for sustainable development with specific focus on sustainable consumption and production.
That project has been in development for a number of years under the auspices of the United Nations and the International Organisation for Francophone. In an interview with the Government Information Service, Executive Director of the Caribbean Natural Resources, Sarah McIntosh, explained the tying in with Dominica and what is hoped to come out of the workshop.
“Francophone is like the Commonwealth of French-Speaking Countries started by countries in Africa but involving, in the Caribbean, the Creole Speaking Countries of Haiti, Dominica and St. Lucia. This project is covering those three (3) countries and the workshop that we are doing here today is to look at the policy context in Dominica for sustainable consumption and production, to share with people from the country and with the other two countries what is happening here so that we call all learn from each other and then to look at a draft pilot project that is planned in the area of sustainable housing.”
 Executive Director of the
Caribbean Natural
Resources, Sarah McIntosh
The Dominica aspect of the project will look specifically at sustainable consumption and production in the housing sector. In speaking with GIS News, General Manager of the Housing Division, Hillarian Jules, explained the importance of such a workshop to Dominica. He explained that is geared at enlightening persons as to housing and its impact on our lives and that of future generations.
“It is really one that is geared at capacity building, encouraging and sensitising persons as far as our modes of consumption are concerned. Some of us, we realise that shelter or housing is a basic need of human beings and sometimes we go to all lengths to create and set up a house or shelter without giving any regard to what effect that can have on the environment. A the end of the day, how we treat the environment will determine what type of environment our children will get in the long run.”
It is hoped that at the end of the workshop and pilot project, that the countries involved would share and learn from each other’s experiences and devise methods of adoption of such practices.
 General Manager of the
Housing Division,
Hillarian Jules
“What we hope is that at the end of the day, whatever we have gathered as far as all the workshops and sessions are concerned, that we will be able to transfer the technology to each other. For example, in the case of St. Lucia’s, is it sustainable for hotels in Dominica to have in-house laundry? Would it be better to have it outsourced, localised? In which case all these detergents and other effluents and so on that come out of could be more sustainably treated in a localised area as opposed to each hotel of its own particularly as we may have some hotels along the beaches. How do you let off this laundry run off?”
While Dominica’s focus is on housing, St. Lucia is focused on laundry services in the hospitality and tourism sector while Haiti will look at renewable energy. |
