The III Meeting of the Special Group on National Disasters was held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on May 11 and 12, with the participation of delegations from 12 Member States and Associate Members, 5 Observers, and 6 International Organizations. (Annex I – List of Participants) Presiding the meeting were Dr. Roberto Velásquez, of Panama, Chairman of the Special Group on Natural Disasters; Dr. Barbara Carby, of Jamaica, as Vice-Chairman; and M.S. Carlos Gutiérrez, of Mexico, as Rapporteur. Also as part of the Head table were Ambassador Simón Molina Duarte, Secretary General of ACS, and Mario F. Estrada Cuevas, Director of ACS, in charge of matters related to natural disasters, among others.

The welcoming speech of the III Meeting of the Special Group was given by the Secretary General of the ACS, Ambassador Simón Molina Duarte. Dr. Roberto Velásquez, Chairman of the Special Group on Natural Disasters, in his opening address, emphasized the importance of research in disaster prevention and mitigation, in view of the diversity and intensity of such disasters (hurracaines, earthquakes, mudsliding, tidalwaves, etc.) in the Caribbean Basin. Finally, Dr. Eduardo Latorre, Minister of Foreign Relations, on behalf of the host country, presented the inaugural speech and highlighted, among other aspects, the importance of dealing with the problem of toxic-waste transportation in the Caribbean sea.

The Chairman of the Meeting, Dr. Velásquez, proposed amendments to the Agenda with the purpose of motivating a larger participation and achieving productive debates, which were unanimously approved (Anex II – Final Agenda).

The Chairman of the meeting stressed that resolutions adopted by this Working Group should be analyzed by the Special Committees On Natural Resources and Protection and Preservation of the Environment and the Caribbean Sea, which will meet in the Bahamas at the end of September 1998. In this regard, he pointed out that if the resolutions of this Group are approved by the Special Committee, they will be subsequently submitted to the consideration of the IV Meeting of the Board of ACS Ministers, to be held in Barbados, in the beginning of November 1998.

On behalf of the Secretary General, the Director Mario F. Estrada Cuevas, upon presenting the items contained in the Report of the Secretary, stressed that some of the ACS Member States have not yet submitted their initiatives to include prevention and mitigation of disasters in their own development plans.

He also indicated that the institutional support which the General Secretariat has been providing to the subject of natural disasters has been channeled through its inclusion in the Caribbean Environmental Strategy in accordance with the mandate received by the Special Committees on Natural Resources and Protection and Preservation of the Environment and the Caribbean Sea. In this regard, he pointed out that the Secretariat has contracted the services of an environmental consultant, Prof. Hernán Pérez Nieto, who has already completed a first draft of this Strategy.

Prof. Pérez Nieto explained the terms of reference for the Environmental Strategy, and made reference particularly to the present threat of the submarine volcano "Kick’em Jenny" Northwest of Grenada.

Dr. Myron Chin, Consultant Ad Hoc of the ACS General Secretariat, made a presentation on the advances in the creation of an inventory of regional experts on natural disasters, as well as research institutes, studies and a roster of regional scientists dealing with natural disasters.

The Cuban Delegation proposed a working group meeting in Havana during the first week of August this year, to ellaborate a project of regional cooperation agreement on disasters in order to fulfill the mandate of the IV Meeting of the Head Table of the Ministerial Council. The preliminary version of this agreement should be submitted, with prior approval of the Special Committees on Environment and Natural Resources, at the IV Meeting of the Ministerial Council to be held in Barbados in November 1998. This group will be open to Member States and Associate Members interested in participating, and it will be formed initially by: the Dominican Republic, the Dutch Antilles, France, Cuba, the ACS Secretariat, CDERA and CEPREDENAC. PAHO and IDNDR will attend as guests and advisors.

Prior to the meeting, the General Secretariat, in coordination with the Head Table of the Special Group on Natural Disasters, will ellaborate a basic document to be circulated among the Member States no later than the second week of July 1998.

Dr. Barbara Carby, Director of the National Office for the Preservation of Disasters of Jamaica and Vice-Chairman of the ACS Special Group on Natural Disasters, will be responsible for coordinating this meeting.

The representative of Disaster Prevention Program for the Caribbean Region of the European Community Humanitarian Office (DIPECHO), made a presentation on this program whose objective is to finance projects presented by countries from the region or by specialized regional organizations. In this regard, he indicated that there are no pre-established funding limitations, but that it will depend on the scope of the project proposals.

The Subprefect of the Guadeloupe Region presented the aid given by his government to Montserrat upon damages caused by the La Soufrière volcano on the island as a concrete cooperation example. In this regard, he emphasized the need to consolidate all existing information in order to synthesize the lessons learned which can be applied to similar cases.

Dr. Helena Molin Valdes, on behalf of the International Decade for Natural Disasters Reduction (IDNDR), referred to the project of converting the Regional Center of Information on Disasters into a Regional System of Information on Disasters in order to include all Caribbean countries.

Licda. Sara Arjona, on behalf CEPREDENAC proposed the implementation of the project "DESINVENTAR" which aims to achieve a precise and state-of-the-art information system on the ocurrence of disasters and related losses in the region, in order to reduce the impact of natural disasters in the Caribbean Basin. She explained the basic characteristics of the system and its possible uses on the prevention and mitigation of disasters. She explained in detail the facilities of the system which is already being implemented in Central America, and the way in which the counries of the Caribbean region can integrate into it. She indicated that this will be a three year project at an approximate cost of US$400,000.

Mr. Adelin Villevieille, President of the Inter-Group UATI/MFOI for IDNDR presented to the consideration of the participants a mechanism project to deal with information in real time on the prevention and intervention in the event of disasters by designing an intra-caribbean network scheme of servers connected to satelites. (Annex III - Proposal for a full-pledged intra-caribbean

system of communications to tackle natural disasters)

As part of the possible projects to be developed by the ACS, the Secretariat proposed the following: the development of a regional temporary housing model to be used after a disaster; the access in CD Rom and Internet of the available construction codes; a Caribbean program on simulation and training; a regional model of optimal refuges; information systems to create financial models; the ellaboration of a Handbook for dealing with any type of disaster; and finallly, an intra-caribbean communication program independant from telephone lines.

In regard to research projects, a basic tool for disaster prevention, Dr. Myron Chin emphasized the need to prioritize and seek for financial resources for their development.

The participants stressed the need for the countries to have sufficient experience and capacity for decision making among other things, in order to obtain and efficient regional coordination to avoid duplicity of efforts in project implementation.

Also, they insisted on the benefits of identifying regional priorities, evaluate the vulnerability of each country, build data bases on research projects and assistance in disaster situations, create inventories of institutions dealing with the subject, and work in the dissemination of information and awareness-building of the population.

Likewise, the delegates proposed that ACS, in cooperation with other international organizations, provide the existing norms of minimum readaptation to those Member Countries and Associate Members that still lack such norms.

The representative from Nicaragua handed to the Chairman of the meeting a package of projects on the sismic activity in Nicaragua and the phenomenon of El Niño, for future evaluation.

The Intergroup UATI/MFOI presented a cost estimate for an intercommunication system based on satellites and servers, amounting to US$700,000. The project implementation was proposed to be progressive and to be evaluated by experts before 1999.

The ECHO representative highlighted that at present DIPECHO has new financial scheme bases on real sums and not pre-established global sums. He informed that in order to submit new ECHO proposals, the Central American countries should contact his office in Guatemala, and those from the Caribbean may deliver them to the Santo Domingo office.

The representative of the Dominican Republic proposed the use of a radio ham network to assist neighboring countries during disasters, which may be implemented immediately at a significantly low cost.

CEPREDENAC presented a detail of the project of Natural Disasters, including aspects such as implementation of softwares in Spanish, French and English, technical training of the sistem, data collection and systematization, editing annual reports, and travel of personnel in charge of system implementation.

Upon a proposal by Cuba, two regional projects were discussed. The first consists of a timely warning and disaster mitigation system for the Caribbean countries. This includes the ellaboration of maps on the vulnerability of metereological phenomena and the establishment of a Regional Center for Metereological Information. Also, a timely disclosure of the collected information is foreseen. This project would be implemented in an approximate three year period.

The second project proposed was a cooperation mechanism among the ACS countries for animal protection against metereological phenomena and serious epizootic deseases.

Due to the fact that 23 projects of local and regional character were received, it was agreed to form a Technical Committee, coordinated by Dr. Barbara Carby, Vice-Chairman of the Special Group, to assign priorities to the projects. CEPREDENAC, CDERA, the ACS Secretariat will be part of this committe, and PAHO as Advisor. In accordance with the established priorities, the projects will be presented to the Environment and Natural Resources Committees for future presentation to the Special Fund authorities.

On behalf of the Secretariat, Mrs. Gisela García made a brief presentation on the basic guidelines and characteristics of the ACS Special Fund. She also referred to the methodology for project presentation. This Fund is separate from the Association budget, and the Council of Ministers is the authority in charge of evaluating the impact of the Fund’s activities every two years. At present, it receives contributions from CAF and the governments of Canada, Aruba and Haiti.

The IDNDR representative proposed that the ACS member countries participate in a preliminary forum with Latin American countries to evaluate the achievements, advancements and gaps in disaster attention and reduction, previous to the participation in a global forum in Geneva, in July 1999.

The Group approved the proposal presented by the Dominican Republic delegation which requested the recognition of the Special Group on Natural Disasters, as a Special Committe. For this, the Special Committees on Protection and Conservation of the Environment and the Caribbean Sea and Natural Resources should submit this request to the Council of Ministers.

Following a proposal by the delegation of Panama, it was agreed to hold the next Group Meeting in Mexico, during the first week of March 1999. It was also agreed that in case the meeting could not take place in Mexico, it could be held in Haiti which has already received its government approval.

Finally, the Chairman once again thanked the host country for its warm hospitality and the excellent arrangements made for the celebration of the meeting, and the same was adjourned.

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

May 12, 1998

ANNEX III

Communications is an essential need to tackle natural disasters, in the intre-crisis periods for strengthening the dissemination as well as in-crisis periods