Workshop signals concluding activities of St. Kitts and Nevis’s Demonstration Project

St. Kitts, June 29, 2010 (SKNIS): St. Kitts and Nevis is among Caribbean territories including Cuba and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, that will be concluding their GEF-IWCAM Demonstration Projects at the end of June, 2010.

This was determined at the Second GEF-IWCAM Capture and Demonstration of Good Practice and Lessons Learned Workshop, held June 22 to 24, in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The workshop was attended by Ian Liburd, Basseterre Valley Aquifer Project Manager, and Alecia Daniel-Blake, Information Officer of the St. Kitts and Nevis Information Service (SKNIS).

Mrs. Blake who assists with the public education aspect of the Project, informed her colleagues at SKNIS that the workshop facilitators Donna Spencer, Communications, Networking and Information Specialist of the GEF-IWCAM Regional Coordination Unit and Sylvester Clauzel, Consultant assisting with the documentation of the Demonstration Projects, congratulated Jamaica and St. Lucia on having already completed their demonstration projects. She said that facilitators also revealed that the Dominican Republic, Antigua and Barbuda and The Bahamas had been granted an extended deadline of September to complete their work.

According to Mrs. Blake, the main work of the training activity included reviewing the status of the demonstration projects and finalizing the general approach to documenting lessons learned and good practices.

The SKNIS Information Officer said that while the St. Kitts and Nevis Demonstration Project will conclude soon, there is a final major undertaking.

“During the last two days of the month, June 29 and 30, ‘Sightseeing with Splishy Splash,’ will take place,” Mrs. Blake revealed. “The event is a nature walk, featuring the mascot, a drop of water from the Basseterre Valley Aquifer named Splishy Splash. The excursion, designed for five of the grade five students of each of the primary schools around the island, goes through a small section of the Aquifer. This will enable the children to find out the Aquifer’s location, acknowledge the importance of water in general and the need to conserve it, draw the historical link between the sugar cane and the Aquifer, and develop from this early age an appreciation of the function of the Aquifer providing motivation for them to protect the area.”

Information Officer Blake noted that in addition to looking forward to the final activity in St. Kitts, while in Jamaica, the workshop participants were able to provide information to fine-tune the case study for the St. Kitts and Nevis Demonstration Project, and give input into the Experience Notes which includes analyzing the social, environmental and economic implications of the demonstration projects. This information is designed to provide clear and concise information in order that entities who undertake similar projects in the future can have a guideline as to what strategies proved successful or ineffective.