Excavation work at the Hope Canal, which is meant to ease pressure on water levels in one of Guyana’s largest coastal reservoirs. Guyana has not made the financial investment it needs to cope with worsening floods and rising sea levels, highlighting how poor countries are struggling to make climate change adaptation a spending priority, researchers say. Guyana Ministry of Agriculture

By Johann Earle
10 September 2012 GEORGETOWN, Guyana (Alertnet) – Guyana has not made the financial investment it needs to cope with worsening floods and rising sea levels, highlighting how poor countries are struggling to make climate change adaptation a spending priority, researchers say. Government funding for sea defences, drainage and irrigation has taken a backseat to expenditure on security in the poor South American nation, according to a study by geography experts at Canada’s University of Western Ontario, released earlier this year. “Between 2008 and 2011, only 2 percent of the annual national budget was devoted to rehabilitating or upgrading the sea and river defences ($13 million in 2010), while 4 percent went to rehabilitating drainage and irrigation infrastructure ($25 million in 2010). Taken together, this adaptation-related expenditure was about half of what was committed to Guyana’s security forces, which commanded roughly 11 percent of the national budget,” the research notes. It finds that the government of Guyana, a former British colony, is directing more resources towards climate mitigation efforts, including forest protection. “On the one hand, the government’s mitigation efforts – which pivot on its sparsely populated interior – are bringing immediate financial rewards, some of which are targeted towards Guyana’s indigenous people. On the other hand, adaptation entails a prohibitive cost to defend against an imprecise future threat,” the study says. Much of Guyana’s coast lies below sea level, which leaves the land vulnerable to seawater intrusion and hard to drain when tides are high or there is excessive rainfall. The majority of the country’s settlements and agriculture are located in coastal areas, meaning that extreme weather and rising seas – linked with climate change – pose serious threats to economic activity and livelihoods. Experts interviewed for the study highlighted a shortage of capacity for research, planning and engineering in the country. One official with the department that manages sea defences explained that, after funding for projects is secured, it is a struggle to find people capable of managing them and maintaining infrastructure once it is built. […]

Guyana struggles to invest in climate defences