News Room

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (hereafter SVG) is Taiwan’s diplomatically in Eastern Caribbean. It is affected frequently by natural disasters including hurricanes, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. Due to limited medical resources, once a natural disaster hits, it will cause a huge burden on medical care. The threats of the crisis could be alleviated if disaster risk management is conducted in advance. With our experiences and resources in disaster prevention and response, we dispatched relevant experts and volunteers to collect data and evaluate, then use our satellite images and meteorological satellite data, along with the integration and scientific analysis of volcano and earthquake monitoring data, to assist the establishment of the SVG’s disaster prevention monitoring system. We hope the system can effectively reduce the risks and losses caused by natural disasters in SVG.
TaiwanIHA and International Cooperation and Development Fund (TaiwanICDF), National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE-NARLabs), National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction (NCDR) singed an MOU on Consultancy Project for Disaster Management and Medical Capacity Building in SVG on April 13, 2021 to assist assessment of SVG’s emergency management system, and assessing and strengthening the SVG’s earthquake warning system, volcano monitoring system and hurricane forecast system. We also shared our experiences in applying science and technology for disaster management. We hope these will reduce the emergency medical burden in SVG.
The accomplishments of the Pilot Project for the Implementation of Emergency Management System to reduce emergency medical burdens in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in 2021-2022 include:
1.Conducting an assessment report on the earthquake resistance of critical infrastructures (government buildings, hospitals/health centers, and public facilities)
2.Assessing and strengthening the SVG’s volcano monitoring system. Ambassador Lan, on behalf of Taiwan government, donated the volcano monitoring equipment (worth US $52,259.9) in June 2022.
3.Assisting SVG capacity building by sending 2 personnel from SVG Meteorological Service to the Caribbean Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH) in Barbados for professional training from August to October 2022.
4.Holding multiple seminars/webinars to reach consensus on the development of disaster management