Caribbean water roundup: CARICOM-EU financing deal, Jamaica water moratorium

The Caribbean Community (Caricom) signed a 50mn-euro (US$56.4mn) financing agreement with the EU under the latter's Caribbean investment initiative to fund water and sanitation projects in the region this year.

EU financing will also go to transport infrastructure, private sector development, renewable energy, climate change adaptation, environmental protection, and social infrastructure, the Jamaica information service reported.

The funds will be disbursed via "investment grants, interest rate subsidies, guarantees, risk capital operations and other risk sharing mechanisms," the outlet quoted Caricom secretary-general Irwin LaRocque as saying.

The deal was one of six financial cooperation agreements (115mn euros in total) the two parties signed on Tuesday.

The EU remains the largest source of grant financing to the Caribbean, according to LaRocque .

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Jamaica's water authority WRA has imposed a moratorium on the extraction of water from the Rio Cobre basin to prevent future shortages in the face of real estate construction in the area, local paper The Gleaner reported.

The decision comes over concerns about the sustainability of the water supply for the island's southeast parish of St Catherine, where the real estate development is planned to be built , according to the report.

A water reallocation agreement between the national irrigation commission (NIC) and water commission NWC had to be signed to ensure the development will receive enough water. Under the deal, the NIC will give some of the water it is allowed extract from the river to the NWC.