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• 11 / 27 / 2009

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This Global Environment Facility (GEF) funded workshop is part of ongoing efforts by UNEP.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in collaboration with the Government of Cuba, and the Regional Activity Centre for the Land-Based Sources of Marine Pollution

Protocol - Centre for Engineering and Management of Coasts and Bays (CIMAB), will host a four-day regional wastewater management workshop at Hotel Nacional de Cuba in Havana, Cuba from Tuesday November 24 to Friday November 27, 2009.

According to Christopher Corbin, Programme Officer at UNEP's Caribbean Environment Programme, "This Global Environment Facility (GEF) funded workshop is part of ongoing efforts by UNEP to assist Regional Governments in overcoming technical and financial barriers to improving the management of domestic wastewater, 70% of which enters the Caribbean Sea untreated." Mr. Corbin further notes that the workshop is expected to attract more than 35 Government participants from 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, including representatives from regional agencies involved in wastewater management such as the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute (CEHI), Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

The objectives of the workshop are to:

-Discuss the final results and experiences in the implementation of the GEF funded Project:

      'Innovative Approaches for Heavily Contaminated Bays in the Wider Caribbean';

    * Share more than 10 years of lessons learned in the environmental rehabilitation of Havana Bay and its watersheds; and

    * Present national and regional case studies and results of the impacts of wastewater discharges on coastal and marine resources;

The project has provided technological capacity building on nutrient removal and sludge treatment in the Wider Caribbean Region and facilitated exchange of best practices and lessons learned. These regional activities, facilitated through UNEP,
effectively complement the national interventions in Cuba through UNDP and represent the importance of different implementing agencies of GEF working together for the benefit of the region.

Discussions during the workshop will also support efforts by UNEP and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to develop a Caribbean Regional Fund for Wastewater Management (CReW). Government representatives and regional agencies such as the Caribbean Development Bank, will have the opportunity to provide input into the ongoing development of this 20 million USD project proposal for submission to the GEF Secretariat. The CReW Project Proposal will include the development of flexible and innovative investment and financing mechanisms for wastewater projects, support for policy, institutional and legal reforms, and capacity building.

Nelson Andrade Colmenares, Coordinator of the UNEP's Jamaica-based Caribbean Environment Programme, highlighted that the recent announcement by Jamaica's Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, in October 2009 that his government was developing an action plan to strengthen existing regulatory agencies and implement new wastewater regulations in March 2010, with a view to ratifying the Cartagena Convention's LBS Protocol regarding pollution from land-based sources and activities, was an example of the sort of regional leadership required to support pollution prevention in the Caribbean region.

The Land-Based Sources of Marine Pollution Protocol is the only Protocol of the Cartagena Convention for the Protection and Development of the Caribbean Sea that has not yet entered into force or become International Law.

Trinidad and Tobago,Panama, Belize, Saint Lucia, USA and France are the six countries to have ratified thus far and three more are needed before this entry into force takes place. Mr. Andrade concluded that once the Protocol enters into force, it will strengthen the region's capacity to deal with wastewater management in a more comprehensive manner thus safeguarding fragile coastal and marine resources, and most importantly, protecting human health.

For more information please contact:

Mr. Christopher Corbin

AMEP Programme Officer

UNEP CAR RCU

14-20 Port Royal Street, Kingston, Jamaica

Tel: 876 922 9267; Fax: 876 922 9292;

Email: [email protected]

For more information on the workshop, visit:

http://cep.unep.org/cimab/taller-gef

Source: www.unep.org