BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The Board of Directors of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has approved EUR332,000 grant funding to the Government of Jamaica to strengthen the disaster risk management capacity of Portmore Municipal Corporation (PMC).

In a release this morning, the CDB said to due to its location, geology and socio-economic factors, Portmore is considered to be one of the most vulnerable municipalities in Jamaica to natural hazards, mainly coastal and riverine floods, earthquakes and hurricanes.

CDB’s Coordinator, Environmental Sustainability Unit, Cheryl Dixon noted that  through this technical assistance grant, the PMC will gain access to the necessary tools, and updated and reliable hazard risk data, to make evidenced-based decisions in respect to disaster risk management (DRM), thus enabling them to effectively coordinate DRM activities and mainstream DRM into its work programme.

The technical assistance will provide resources to:

• Revise the Portmore multi-hazard risk profile and disaster DRM plan, including guidelines for DRM mainstreaming into key sector development policies;

• Improve the natural hazards and vulnerability geographical information system (GIS) database, and strengthen the GIS capacity of PMC;

• Update and expand the Portmore Evacuation Plan, including marking of evacuation routes and installing evacuation signs, as well as conducting evacuation simulation exercises for hurricane and flooding in ten political divisions in Portmore; and

• Strengthen community disaster resilience.

The grant is allocated from resources provided under the African Caribbean Pacific–European Union (ACP-EU) CDB Natural Disaster Risk Management in the CARIFORUM Countries Programme.