The Inter-American Development Bank today announced the approval of a $21.3 million loan to Belize to improve the country’s capacity to respond to hurricanes and other natural disasters, as well as to reduce vulnerabilities.
The resources will be used to build new regional hurricane shelters and to improve existing shelters, upgrade the drainage infrastructure of Belize City, and enhance the disaster response capacity of the National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) and local organizations.
The Caribbean Development Bank is providing $8.3 million in parallel financing for the operation.
The measures to be taken include, among others, plans for disaster management, analysis and design of measures to protect critical infrastructure and lifeline networks, hazard analysis and assessment, training and educational programs for civil preparedness, and the design, implementation and enforcement of building codes.
Investments will also be made in technical assistance and other measures to address the issue of sustainability of the program in such areas as infrastructure maintenance, organizational preparedness, and planning.
The institutional strengthening of NEMO will be a central component of the program, which will be carried out by the Ministry of Budget Planning, Economic Development. Investment and Trade.*
The total cost of the program is $32.2 million.
The IDB loan is for a 25-year term, with a four-year grace period, at the variable interest rate, now 6.84 percent.
Local counterpart funds are $2.6 million.