This is according to Hon. Dr. Kenneth Darroux, Minister for the Environment and Parliamentary Representative for the Petite Savanne constituency.
Speaking at the House of Parliament on Monday, Hon. Darroux gave his full support for the supplementary estimates brought before the House by the Hon. Finance Minister on Thursday September 18th, 2014.
$10.9M of the supplementary estimates went towards the geothermal project.
Hon Darroux reported, “I just came from the United Nations Third Conference on Small Island Developing States in Samoa and the recognition that Dominica received because of its geothermal initiative is just remarkable and I felt very proud and honored to be part of a Government that has initiated this geothermal project.”
The issue of climate change gives rise to the need for countries to move into renewable energy initiatives.
Given the vulnerability of Dominica it does the island well to do all necessary to reduce the island’s susceptibility to the effects of climate change, hence the Labour administration’s geothermal initiative.
Hon. Darroux noted that funds in the supplementary estimates went towards preparing the nation to receive a package from the World Bank for climate change mitigation.
“The Government of Dominica through my Ministry secured funding under the Dominica-Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) which is a pilot project for climate resilience and the Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project (DVRP) for the implementation of climate change and disaster risk mechanisms for Dominica. These projects include the collection of meteorological data, the construction of storm drains, road construction, the construction of potable water tanks for DOWASCO and many other infrastructural and agro-forestry projects. This project is being executed by the World Bank with an IDA loan component which constitutes spending by the Government of Dominica and a grant component from the Climate Investment Fund with a project total cost of US $38M or EC $103M,” Hon. Darroux explained.
Hon. Darroux informed that all is in place for this project to be officially launched in October 2014.
Source: GIS Dominica
