J-SRAT Being Utilised to Build Resilience

Minister of Water, Environment, and Climate Change, Hon. Matthew Samuda, announced that the Jamaica Systemic Risk Assessment Tool (J-SRAT), is being utilised to evaluate climate risks within potential investment areas.

The tool utilises data-driven insights to pinpoint critical infrastructure at risk, providing a roadmap for the strategic allocation of public and private investment.

Minister Samuda noted that J-SRAT is being used in the approval process to ensure that the impact of catastrophic weather events is reduced, or protections are put in place.

“The very development approval process is now contemplating climate risk. The very investment process that we do through what’s called the Public Investment Appraisal Branch [at] the Ministry of Finance, is assessing climate risk,” he said.

“So, you are not going to see a hospital or a school being built along the coastline or being built in an area that is flood-prone without particular contemplations or associated protections, because you actually have the ability to assess what risk you have,” Minister Samuda added.

He disclosed that the Government plans to give developers access to J-SRAT once the processes associated with the technology are finalised.

The Minister was speaking at the Leaders in Real Estate Breakfast held at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston on Thursday (February 26).

The leadership breakfast was hosted by REALTORS® Association of Jamaica under the theme ‘Strengthening Partnerships for a More Efficient, Transparent, and Sustainable Real Estate Sector’.

Minister Samuda also pointed out that recognising climate risk is only a part of the process, as a robust economy is necessary to meet the requirements to invest in Jamaica’s National Adaptation Plan (NAP) and address the potential risks of climate change.

One area he highlighted is the water sector, which he emphasised is required in the approval process when building residential or commercial developments.

“It is the base of human life, and it is the base of development. There is no way for us to continue to develop at the rate we have without significantly increasing our investment in our adaptation plans for water,” Minister Samuda argued.

He noted that the World Bank indicated that Jamaica requires US$5 billion in investment to make the country water resilient.

The strategy the Government has employed to attain water resilience has been to divide the country into zones, depending on the level of investment required.

The Minister noted that it is guided first by population distribution, where the majority of the country’s economic activity is conducted.

“So, we know that between Morant Bay and May Pen, you have about 1.8 million people. We know that a lot of our economic activity, certainly our industrial and manufacturing activity takes place in this corridor, so that’s a zone that we have identified for particular investments,” he said.

He also identified Martha Brae in Trelawny to Negril in Hanover as another zone that has been driving much of the business that is being conducted in Jamaica.