Dominica govt commissions emergency shelters in Jimmit & Castle Bruce

Roseau, Dominica: The government of Dominica continues to invest in making the country the first Climate Resilient nation in the world. As part of this, two regional emergency shelters were commissioned on Wednesday and these will serve the people in the Jimmit and Castle Bruce areas.

An agreement was signed between the Government of Dominica and the National Authorizing Office (NAO) on behalf of the European Union Development Fund to see the fruition of these projects.

The 18 million dollar facility in Jimmit was constructed to serve as a safe place in the event of a natural disaster. This project was developed to house 500 individuals.

The Castle Bruce Regional Emergency Shelter, costing over 14 million dollars, has a capacity of 300 people. Construction works began in September 2020. These facilities include an open hall to serve as a dormitory, a storage area, kitchen, washrooms, medical area, laundry, office area, and alternate water and power.

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The government of Dominica is investing heavily in building more climate resilient infrastructures to gain resilience against natural disasters. Following the 2017 Hurricane Maria, the government has been paying keen attention to resilience and aims to be world's first climate resilient nation.

Under the initiative, the government also pledged to build 5,000 homes for families displaced by Hurricane Maria. Since then, around 1100 homes already constructed and distributed to families.

Dominica government also created the Climate Resilience Execution Agency for Dominica (CREAD). It leads and coordinates strategic efforts across sectors in the Commonwealth of Dominica with the objective of making Dominica the world's first climate resilient nation. CREAD works to strengthen the ability of businesses, government agencies, and social sector partners to build strong and resilient communities, develop adaptive infrastructure, accelerate economic growth, strengthen institutional systems, improve Dominicans' capacity to respond to local impacts of global climate change.