Agencies Achievements & Ongoing Initiatives
DEPARTMENT OF METEOROLOGY
During the 2016 / 2017 fiscal year, the Department of Meteorology was mainly focused on hiring, training and improving its technology capacity.
Annex H
Hiring The Department of Meteorology has been experiencing a critical shortage of manpower in Meteorological Observers and electronics ranks for over 8 years which had caused these officers to work extended periods and to be given limited periods of leave; putting a tremendous strain on them. To this end the Department continued in its hiring efforts and 9 persons were hired, all of which would be trained as meteorological observers. Of the 9, 4 would then be assigned to the electronics section after their initial training and 2 of the 5 trainees( assigned to be meteorological observers) would be assigned to the Freeport Meteorological section. The acquisition of staff was at a cost of $ 146,250.00.
Training The World Meteorological Organization( WMO) and the International Civil Aviation Organization( ICAO) require that meteorological personnel are suitable qualified for the task they perform for aviation.
To this end 4 of the 9 meteorological trainees attended the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology( CIMH) in Bridgetown, Barbados to attend the Entry Level Technicians Course( to become certified meteorological observers). The other 5 meteorological trainees are presently undergoing local training but will be attending CIMH in August 2016.
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2016 / 2017 DRAFT ESTIMATES OF REVENUE & EXPENDITURE
Further, ICAO has mandated that by December 2016 all Aviation Forecasters must be qualified to at least a Bachelor of Science( BSc) Degree in Meteorology or a BSc Degree in an accepted science with certification in the Basic Instruction Package for Meteorological Technicians( BIP-MT). In this regard, An Officer completed the BIP-MT certification at CIMH. Another Officer is pursuing a BSc Degree in Meteorology at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus. The total cost of this training to date is $ 64,250.00.
Ongoing Projects The Department of Meteorology is the final stages of preparing a proposal to purchase 4 Doppler Weather Radars and 10 Automatic Weather Observation Stations( AWOSs). With the acquisition of these Doppler Weather Radars, the Department would see any severe weather systems within or near The Bahamas and hence be able to better warn all residents. The AWOSs would be placed at airports with high volume of traffic throughout The Bahamas. As a result of these AWOSs, the airports would meet the required standards of ICAO. The estimated cost of the Radars and AWOSs is $ 18.8M.
THE MINISTRY OF THE ENVIRONMENT & HOUSING
The Ministry of the Environment & Housing continues to fulfill its mandate to better the lives of all Bahamians through the management and protection of the environment and through the improvement and provision of housing for low to medium income families.
The Ministry of the Environment & Housing continued to provide for the protection of the environment upon which national development is based. The Bahamas Environment Science Technology( BEST) Commission completed and submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change( UNFCCC) the Second National Communication Report as well as the National Implementing Entity Agency( NIEA) document.
The first half of this fiscal period was dominated by the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC and the eleventh session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol held in November to December 2015, in Paris, France. Some 195 States that are Parties to