Above Dominican and EU officials (Photo: DICOM)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The Dominican Republic is receiving $2.85 million USD in grant funding from the European Union to improve disaster prevention in the country.

The agreement on the funding was signed Thursday by Dominican Republic Minister of the Presidency Gustavo Montalvo and two European Union officials.

The projects aim to strengthen response capacity, equipment and organization for both prevention and mitigation, the government said.

It also provides for the inspection of schools, hospitals and water distributions systems to determine their vulnerability.

Once that analysis is completed, a number of recommendations will then be issued.

Montalvo said that one of the problems in previous disasters in the Dominican Republic had been rapid scarcity of drinking water, something the country would work on in part with this new funding.

“The results of this agreement will not only positively impact the work of communities, but will benefit multiple institutions working in disaster prevention,” the government said in a statement.