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WASHINGTON, Dec 17 2015 – The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) says it is providing a US$42 million grant to Haiti to help improve natural disaster mitigation.
“Haiti will improve watersheds management especially in rural areas, mitigating the risk of natural disasters associated with climate change,” said the Washington-based financial institution on Wednesday.
It said the grant will seek to increase capacities for adaptation to climate change and disaster risk management in the agriculture sector; improve water and sediment conservation in selected gullies of priority watersheds, including the Centre-Artibonite Loop area; reduce risk of rural economic losses due to floods in targeted watersheds; and restore the educational capacity of the Faculty of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine.
The IDB said Haiti is one of the countries with the highest natural disaster risk index in the world, adding that its agricultural sector is especially vulnerable to natural disasters “because of its geography and reliance on activities closely linked to climate factors.”
The IDB noted that 80 percent of the French-speaking Caribbean country is mountainous, with 30 main watersheds and just 28 percent arable land, which is concentrated in irrigated valleys.
“Its location within the Caribbean’s hurricane belt, its mountainous terrain, and severe deforestation, combined with its reliance on agriculture, make it particularly susceptible to flooding,” the IDB said.
It said agriculture contributes to 25 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, 5.9 percent of total exports value, 47 percent of overall employment and 71 percent of employment in rural areas.
Haiti currently suffers US$28 million in annual expected losses for four watersheds targeted by the project.
It said climate-hazardous events are likely to increase as global temperatures rise.
A portion of the funding for the project comes from the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) under the global Climate Investment Funds (CIF).
