By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Government has enlisted the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) help to assess the risks that climate change poses to “critical transport and energy infrastructure” and the amount of funding needed to mitigate this threat.

The multilateral lender, in documents detailing its $370,000 climate resilience assessment and mitigation plan for Bahamian public infrastructure, said that “unusually heavy short duration rainfall” - in the absence of hurricanes - is impeding vehicle movements and causing damage through flooding in low-lying areas of New Providence.

“Infrastructure coverage, capacity, quality and resilience are essential to enabling access to opportunities and services, reducing poverty and inequality, promoting security and fostering productivity. However, infrastructure assets in The Bahamas are likely to be increasingly severely affected by the increased intensity of climate events and may be unable to accommodate heavy rain and storms,” the IDB warned.

“Recently, The Bahamas has experienced unusually heavy short duration rainfalls where almost 12 inches of rain fell in 24 hours, causing widespread localised flooding of roads, disrupting vehicle movements and causing damage, reducing accessibility to public services, disruption of the provision of public services and reduction in mobility for vulnerable parts of the population that use non-vehicular modes of transportation.”

Simon Wilson, the Ministry of Finance’s financial secretary, echoed these concerns in a letter to the IDB’s Bahamas country head, Daniela Carrera Marquis, that gave the Government’s go-ahead for an initiative that will analyse the risk extreme weather events pose “to critical infrastructure on the island of New Providence and other low-lying islands, and to quantify the funding needs to upgrade this high-risk infrastructure”.

He added: “The recent rains (without hurricane flooding) have highlighted the need for flood remediation and mitigation in New Providence and other islands, and such an exercise as contemplated in the technical co-operation will provide the basis for a policy/financial decision on the way ahead.

“As the minister of works and utilities [Alfred Sears KC] mentioned in his contribution to the Budget debate, New Providence is an expanding region and it is important that as the capital city it should be in a position to ensure that its critical infrastructure should always be up and running in order to provide the response to the rest of The Bahamas in times of emergencies/crisis. The recent flooding demonstrates the challenges this poses.”

The IDB paper added of the project’s goals: “The aim is to map the degree of severity of risks to critical transport and energy infrastructure posed by natural hazards, increased variability in weather patterns and extreme climate events to create a prioritised set of risk mitigation investments and costs for the Government of The Bahamas.

“The analysis will draw on models across New Providence (especially inland areas) and other low-lying Islands to simulate hydro-meteorological risks for a range of climate hazards and potential future damages along road corridors and by extension adjacent public infrastructure (energy, water and sanitation, health and education infrastructure)....

“The Bahamas is one of the most vulnerable countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region to climate hazard events,” the IDB paper continued. “In the past two decades (2000-2020), the country has been hit by 15 major disasters, mainly hurricanes. The high winds and flooding from heavy rains and storm surges from these disasters have in total resulted in more than $6bn in public infrastructure and housing losses.

“Moreover, The Bahamas is expected to experience rising temperatures and reduced rainfall. Combined with a drier climate, more extreme weather events can place additional stress on infrastructure. Damaged transport assets, along with infrastructure structural integrity and operational capacity [issues] from increased variability and extreme weather events, in turn can lead to reduced mobility and access to key destinations, disrupted power and lead to loss of life. It can represent a sizable portion of economic losses.”

Giving further insight into the project’s goals, the IDB said: “The aim is to map the degree of severity of climate risks posed to critical transport corridors and associated energy and water supply infrastructure along those corridors, and to create a prioritised set of risk mitigation investments and costs for the Government of The Bahamas.

“Based on the results of the modelling exercises, an investment plan of the interventions and financial needs will be prepared to ensure an adequate climate resiliency upgrade of current infrastructure stock, including a focus on increasing the stock of sustainable and inclusive infrastructure systems, and requirements to create the enabling policy environment and institutional conditions needed to scale up, sustain and replicate resilient and environmentally-sustainable infrastructure projects in the country.”