Urban planners, municipal leaders, academics, professionals and policymakers from across the Caribbean gathered in Trinidad and Tobago this week for the 14th Caribbean Urban Forum.
Minister of Planning, Economic Affairs and Development, Kennedy Swaratsingh, shared one of the Ministry’s ongoing climate resilience projects.
The relocation of the Port of Spain dump to an engineered solution, and just today we met with IDB and the Ministry of Public Utilities. And we created a firm resolution to go out within the next nine months or so, after completing exercise with the requisite expertise in order to send out an RFP to start to move that dump out of Port of Spain.
He said the closure of the Port of Spain dump is just one part of a larger transition toward more sustainable waste management practices.
Use that space as a transition point in order to completely decommission that site. This includes the relocation of the Port of Spain dump to a re-engineered solution with broader meaningful initiatives to reduce, reuse, recycle solid and chemical waste and control land.
The Planning, Economic Affairs and Development Minister said the technocrats at the ministry are also preparing for COP30.
Spatial development guidelines are being developed to outline renewable energy alternatives and methods to reduce energy consumption and to promote green infrastructure from the use of alternative sources such as solar, wind and wind energy. We also aim to implement strategies and initiate projects geared towards the improvement of our health and the health of our communities and environment.
The theme of the Forum was ‘Replanning & Resilience: The Roadmap for Caribbean Cities’.