Stakeholders meet to stress test the resilience of critical infrastructure in Trinidad and Tobago
As Caribbean countries brace for the potential impact of the ongoing Atlantic Hurricane Season, key institutions involved in securing Trinidad and Tobago’s disaster preparedness and infrastructure resilience have begun the process of implementing the UNDRR’s Principles for Resilient Infrastructure.
The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) is working alongside Trinidad and Tobago’s Office for Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM) on the “Strengthening the Level of Resilience of Critical Infrastructure in Trinidad and Tobago Project”. The project which was launched in March of 2023 involves a national level assessment of the state of infrastructure resilience across seven critical sectors, oil and gas, energy, transportation, telecommunications, water and wastewater, education, and health.
In June 2023, representatives from these seven sectors and state agencies involved in assessing risks from hazards took part in a two-day exercise using the UNDRR’s multi-criteria Stress Test methodology. Participants were tasked with scoring the potential of hazards to disrupt critical infrastructure functions including the distribution of electricity and the transportation of people and goods. The exercise also assessed the impact of these disruptions on the country’s economy and society. This is a critical step in implementing the Principles for Resilient Infrastructure in Trinidad and Tobago and will test the ability of the country’s infrastructure systems to adapt to, respond to, and recover from disasters.
In highlighting resilience building initiatives in place at their agencies, stakeholders agreed that the risk-management process should not be solely limited to meteorlogical hazards though, as biohazards, cyber-attacks, and epidemics should also be factored in. Agencies also discussed the need for better information sharing across stakeholders to improve the availability of risk related data. This is being facilitated through the UNDRR’s Risk Information Exchange (RiX) platform. As one attendee noted during the workshop, “Trinidad and Tobago is in dire need of instituting preparedness mechanisms across the board.”
The partnership between UNDRR and the ODPM on the “Strengthening the Level of Resilience of Critical Infrastructure in Trinidad and Tobago Project” provided a platform for actions to reduce disruption and damage to critical infrastructure in the country.