Focused on the reduction of risks and vulnerabilities, and on adaptation to climate change, the International Coastal Resilience Project (PIRC), with almost five years in execution, notably benefits ecosystems and communities of the Villa Clara coast.
Although the area of intervention falls within the Punta Brava-La Playa Popular Council, belonging to the municipality of Caibarién, the PIRC also favors the rest of the coastal territories of the central geography, based on access to training and equipment, he declared to the ACN Luis Orlando Pichardo Moya, coordinator of the project in the province.
According to Edelkis Rodríguez Moya, head of results area two and director of the Center for Environmental Studies and Services of Villa Clara, to date, concrete actions have been developed in the people’s council to reduce the effects of mean sea level rise, strong winds during hurricanes, and the penetration of the salt wedge, just to name a few.
One of the priorities, he commented, is the recovery of 15 hectares (ha) of mangrove (mostly red), of which more than 11 have already been worked, with the aim of reestablishing the mangrove strip as the first barrier on land. that avoids the strong penetrations of the sea and, therefore, the impacts on houses and other socio-economic facilities.
He added that, based on a collaboration agreement with the Hydraulic and Community Resources companies, and the Urban Agriculture system in Caibarién, intervention is being made in the canals (which act as a drainage system in the city) to clean them and allow the correct water circulation; an alliance that has made it possible to close cycles, since the organic matter that is extracted from the trenches is distributed through the “organopónicos” and resilient patios to be used as natural fertilizer.
Funded by the European Union, through the Integral Alliance for Climate Change, the International Coastal Resilience Project began in Villa Clara as a result of the increased needs after Hurricane Irma.
The initiative, which should conclude in the province at the end of this year, still envisions for the next stage the strengthening of the water harvest and the installation of a semi-automatic weather station in Cayo Santamaría, which provides real-time information on climatic coastal variables.
Source: ACN
