Water Information Systems Experts: Planning and Development Workshop

This week, we were given the opportunity to attend a workshop for water information system experts that was organized by CEHI. The workshop is being held at the Coco Palm Hotel in Rodney Bay. Elektra was planning to attend just on Friday, but yesterday Sharon decided that we should go since the office was practically empty! Sitting in on the workshop we heard a variety of presentations about different experiences with water management and reporting obligations. As there are many different programs and methods for water management there is a need to determine the most effective model. Attending the workshop has been great because we have been given the opportunity to talk to really interesting people from different Caribbean islands and organizations.

We were a little nervous when we first got to the conference since it was a sort of unexpected part of day. But, we quickly adapted and seriously enjoyed the A.C. We got to view a few presentations before lunch.

At lunch (which was delicious), we sat with Mary Beth Sutton and a local St. Lucian high school senior, Keiwa. Mary Beth is an American who runs a non-profit called Caribbean SEA (http://caribbean-sea.dreamhosters.com/) which aims to work with island agencies to teach children about their relationship to the environment and teach them to be leaders in protecting and restoring their environment. Children are given the opportunity to go out and do water sampling themselves discovering what is in the water they are drinking. It places and emphasis on community involvement. When a community is aware of an issue, especially younger members of the community, there is a sense of ownership and responsibility for a problem. This is an effective way to address environmental health problems because community members become consciously aware of the source of health issues.

Keiwa is one of Mary Beth's student leaders, an example of this community involvement. She will be studying environmental science and marine biology at university in Jamaica. Later in the day we exchanged information with the both of them! Hopefully we can help Mary Beth's organization and hang out with Keiwa during the rest of our time on St. Lucia.

Later in the day we heard Mary Beth's exciting presentation as well as a presentation on Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping. The specific program allows institutes to look at maps with data and also download documents with background information about certain projects/conditions.

We were very tired at the end of the day, and ate such a large and delicious lunch that we curled up on the couches with books and didn't prepare a full dinner.

Today, we have returned to the conference and are looking forward to another day listening in on the inter-island discussion on their approaches to water management.