Water Security Issue in the Caribbean Windward Islands

Water security is inextricably linked with sustainable development, as interacting with areas like human well-being, socio-economic development, energy, and natural resources management. Consistently, it has been identified as one among the top priorities to be included in the up-coming Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). However, water security acquires particular urgency in Small Islands Developing States (SIDS), given their limited human, economic and physical resources endowment. Such challenges, recognized by the UN declaration of 2014 as the International Year of SIDS, will be the focus of a special session organized by CMCC at the Society for Risk Analysis – Europe (SRA-E) Annual Meeting, to be held in Istanbul from 16 to 18 June 2014. The paper, to be presented at the special session, focuses on the issue of present and long-term freshwater availability in the Windward Caribbean island states. These countries are highly exposed to both prolonged periods of deficient precipitation and intense storm events, while the management of the freshwater resource is far from optimal. Climate change may pose additional strains to their development due to alteration of precipitation regimes. The study identify key drivers and stressors to both natural freshwater availability and national demand and evaluate how climate change and development may affect them.