Following receipt of fund subsidy under the Kyoto Protocol, a memorandum of understanding has been signed on Thursday, May 22, 2014, between the University of Mauritius (UoM) and the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development.
Mauritius is the fourth beneficiary the fund, which amounts to Rs 17 million, after Rwanda, Uruguay and Jamaica.
On the occasion, Tertiary Education Minister Rajesh Jeetah, and Environment Minister Deva Virasawmy launched two books entitled Training Manual on Coastal and Marine Environment for Engineers and Training Manual on Coastal Protection Works elaborated by Dr Nowbuth of the Faculty of Engineering and his team.
Asserting that negotiations are in progress with the Maurice Ile Durable (MID) team, so that the latter can recommend the procedures to the Universities, Rajesh Jeetah has highlighted that it is essential to intensify the efforts to integrate sustainable development into the curriculum.
Deva Virasawmy, for his part, centered his speech on the challenges posed by climate change and the importance of the memorandum of understanding between the UoM and his ministry.
He underlined that the project, Climate Change Adaptation Programme, put forward by his ministry for the coastal zone of Mauritius has five stages , and that it implementation would take place over a period of five years.
He highlighted that one of the five components of the project is ‘Training and Capacity Building in the field of Coastal Engineering’.
It is in this context that the UoM has developed short-term courses in coastal engineering as well as cost and profit analysis.
The training aims at promoting measures for adapting to climate change in the coastal zones.
“These short-term courses dispensed by the UoM will help to sensitise participants to the challenges of climate change,” said Vice-Chancellor Romeela Mohee.
“The trainings are also aimed at sensitizing participants to measures which can be adopted in Mauritius blue economy, thus, we encourage specialized engineers from the private sector as well as the public sector, and even more so, the students themselves, to join this curriculum,” she added.
She concluded by announcing that the UoM will soon have a faculty dedicated to oceanographic studies.
Apart from the UoM, the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT, Madras) will also collaborate over the implementation of the project.
Finally, the first phase of the project has started in 2013 whereby 96 participants of the private and public sectors benefited from training on the coastal and marine environment, as well as on the measures of adaptation for the coastal zones in Mauritius.
The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which commits its parties by setting internationally binding emission reduction targets.
Image (UoM): Tertiary Education Minister Rajesh Jeetah, and Environment Minister Deva Virasawmy signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday, May 22, 2014, following receipt of funds under the Kyoto Protocol.
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