CHALSEY GILL ANTHONY
ON AN ORDINARY day, you get in, start your vehicle, turn on your favourite radio station and drive to work. While bopping your head and humming to a catchy tune, you hear, “We interrupt this segment for an important broadcast…” As you try to settle in at your desk, the notifications on your phone are going off from the calls and messages coming in.
You open your social app and the newsfeed is plastered with posts about the same thing – a tropical storm or hurricane or flood warning has been issued and is in effect. An ordinary day just accelerated into preparation for a weather event. Of course, this is not unlikely but expected to happen any day because climate change contributes to changing weather patterns with more intense and frequent weather events.
On November 2, 2022, Hurricane Lisa made landfall in Belize and affected the lives of many. “My first priorities were food, water, documentation and shelter. When I calculated the estimated cost to prepare, especially with the current price increases on goods and services, I was worried for my kids,” says a single mother of two young children as she anxiously recounts her feelings. “Even though I got paid just a few days ago, it was not in my budget, and I could not prepare the way I wanted.”
Yes, the issues of food and water security are among the most critical in disaster preparedness and management. Additionally, the connections between climate change, food security, water and health come to the fore when examining the threat of any extreme weather event. And as people living in the Caribbean, especially in low-lying coastal communities, we are all too familiar with their impacts.
Last year, Suriname experienced persistent heavy rainfall, causing an overflow of rivers and severe flooding. Chandrikapersad Santokhi, president of Suriname, made an appeal for international support after he declared seven of ten districts as disaster areas.
In his address to the United Nations 77th session, Santokhi shared that “fertile agricultural lands were adversely affected, causing economic loss and impacting food security and rural livelihoods.” The floods affected several businesses, schools, healthcare facilities and more than 3,000 households, causing many farmers to lose their crops and families to be cut off without any source of income.
The direct and indirect impacts of the devastation were felt across the country.
“Companies in the coastal areas that were receiving agricultural products from those communities had shortages of produce and juices in the store because they couldn’t provide the fruits to make the juices,” says Stephanie Cheuk-Alam, Suriname’s head of the Environmental Inspectorate at the Bureau of Public Health and first cohort graduate of the University of the West Indies, climate change and health leaders fellowship training programme.
The Caribbean’s food security is severely vulnerable to the impacts of disaster-related events exacerbated by climate change which can lead to humanitarian crises and national secu
