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BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, January 31, 2020 (CMC) – The Barbados-based Caribbean Drought and Precipitation Monitoring Network (CDPMN) says the entire Caribbean basin should monitor its water supply and adopt conservation measures, as much as possible, as drought situations continue to worsen throughout the region.
In its February edition of the Caribbean Drought Bulletin, released here, today, the CDPMN said with rainfall varying across the Caribbean during December 2019, the impacts of the current dry season are likely to play out, differently, across the region.
It said, for example, with record low rainfall in Barbados for 2019 at its two main stations, there is much concern that long-term drought can again impact its ground water supply, by the end of the dry season in May.
“Similar water availability concerns exist over other islands of the southern and south-eastern Caribbean, Antigua, Cayman Islands, and parts of the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Belize, by the end of May,” CDPMN warned.
It said that mixed conditions were seen throughout the islands of the eastern Caribbean in the month of December. CDPMN said a shorter-term drought situation, by the end of April, is evolving in Tobago and might possibly develop or continue in the ABC Islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao), Barbados, Belize, Cayman, central Cuba, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Sint Maarten/St. Martin, Trinidad and the US Virgin Islands.
CDPMN said regarding long term drought, lasting up to the end of May this year, is evolving in the ABC Islands, Antigua, Barbados, Belize, Cayman Islands, eastern Jamaica, St. Lucia, St Vincent and Trinidad and Tobago.
It said that the situation “might possibly develop or continue” in other locations, with the exception of the north-west Bahamas, French Guiana, eastern Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands.
“Areas ending up in long-term drought by the end of May, may experience significantly-reduced water levels in large reservoirs, large rivers, and groundwater, during the dry season,” CDPMN added.
