 Welcome to Nation Beat. I am Janelle Norville bringing you this brief on the pulse of our nation and highlights around the heart of St. Lucia. Millet residents vocal as works on the Millet water intake moves a full speed ahead. Following a comprehensive public sensitization campaign, the island records a decrease in suicide rates for 2018 and the nation's students function in the digital age. The government of St. Lucia has committed EC168 million dollars this new year 2019 to improvements in the water sector. The amount will finance projects at the John Compton Dam where phase one of the disilting of the dam began last May. The Denry Water Project as well as the construction of the Grace Water Intake. Further upgrades include the Millet Water Intake. In that community, residents have been fully engaged in the rehabilitation process. Lisa Joseph has a closer look at what has been happening there. Scores of residents from Millet and its environs flocked to the Millet Infant School on January 14, 2019 to obtain first hand information on the status of works on the rehabilitation of the Millet water intake. In keeping with the mandate of the government of St. Lucia to involve residents of communities at all stages of project implementation under the Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project, the DVRP, yet another call was made for Millet residents to engage with local representatives of the consulting firm Burnside International and government officials. Eager to ensure that the interests are on the front burner, several persons asked forthright questions surrounding the nature of the project and its impact on the surrounding communities. Strategic planning manager with the Water and Switch Company, Wasco, Peter Novel, explained that the objective of the project is to re-establish the Millet water intake as the primary source of raw water with the John Compton Dam providing the secondary source to meet the shortfall. This, he said, will build adequate redundancy into the system, which is critical for reducing the risk to disasters. Local social and environmental safeguard specialists represented the consultancy firm assured residents that anyone whose property was compromised or utilized during project implementation will be duly compensated. The social and environmental safeguard specialists employed with the project coordinating units in the Department of Economic Development provided contact details that residents can use to allow for speedy redress or clarification on any matters pertaining to the project. Residents were assured that during the project implementation phase, which is expected to last approximately nine months, water supply will not be compromised. From the Government Information Service, Lisa Joseph reporting. Export St. Lucia Teeper is once again making significant strides in increasing the volume and variety of agricultural products coming from St. Lucia. In December of 2018, a grouping of local CMOS farmers made history by becoming the first to export sun-dried CMOS from St. Lucia to the UK. The test shipment of sun-dried CMOS, which was shipped to the buyer in the United Kingdom, was a resulting success, with rows of approval chiming through. To the extent that the buyer has already expressed interest in a second order of the product in the coming weeks, as well as considering imports of a wider variety of agricultural produce from the island. In preparation for the shipment, exporter Cohen Samuel from Total Health Food Services said that this new market has given CMOS farmers a renewed sense of hope, as they now have a bigger outlet for sale and distribution of their produce. The Department of Fisheries, a key partner in the process, says it is delighted at the prospect. Deputy Chief Fisheries Officer Thomas Nelson says that new and improved methods of CMOS farming will see farmers having greater and more consistent yields in time to come. In the meantime, however, he insists that proper methods and practices should be maintained. The CEO of Expo St. Lucia Tipper, Sunita Daniel, indicates that the market is going to be available and the quality is going to be of the highest. The CEO of Expo St. Lucia Tipper, Sunita Daniel, indicates that this shipment is the organization realizing that there needs diversification in St. Lucia's agricultural export products. We want to still support traditional exports but we want to look at other exports of other commodities and that includes agriculture. So there are a lot of commodities in agriculture that have a lot of export potential that we've not really been looking at. And for fisheries, CMOS is one of them. All parties involved say they look forward to the solidification of this new outlet for CMOS farmers and anticipate good things to come with this success. For Expo St. Lucia Tipper, Jason Darius, reporting. The Department of Health and Wellness records a decrease in suicide rates for 2018 amid efforts to provide inclusions in distress with accessible avenues to find help. More from Funnel Neptune. According to the Department of Health and Wellness suicide report, the figures pointed to a drop for suicide rates in 2018 compared to previous years. St. Lucia has recorded three completed suicides for 2018 compared to 13 in 2017. Consultant psychiatrist Dr. Julius Gilead highlighted the changes in the suicide rates over the last three years. As was noted, between 2015 and 2017 there was an average of about 7 to 8 completed suicides for the year and that was after the national health plan was started. But in 2017 there was a bump up to 13 which we saw a decrease last year, 2-3. Dr. Gilead applauded the suicide prevention efforts of the Department, especially with the support of the national health plan and also sensitization activities. The consultant psychiatrist also noted that despite the decrease in suicide rates, the Department will continue to embark on initiatives to mask significant gains in suicide prevention. We plan on doing things a little better this year to continue to incentivize the public as to the presence of the health plan and to remind persons that it is there for them in case they are having suicidal thoughts. We as well want to go out a little more to the other communities because our efforts last year were centered mainly in castries, apart from the TV ads. So we want to go out into the communities a little more to try to bring that help to persons out there who may not be able to come to castries to be a part of whatever activities that we are having here. Dr. Gilead is urging anyone whose life or whose loved ones life is in immediate danger because of suicide thoughts to call the national health plan at 2-0-3. Reporting from the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, I am Fennel Neptune. St. Lucia has improved its passport power ranking in the Hindi passport index with citizens enjoying visa-free visa on arrival access to 145 countries. St. Lucia now sits in 6th place originally and 31st globally, moving up to sports. This marks a new high for St. Lucia, which moved up its rank in 7 spots since 2008. St. Lucia is benefiting from the need for greater visa-free access to promising destinations, which has grown steadily with increase of global economies. So how did neighboring territories fare? Well-greened a ranked 8th originally and 33rd globally with access to 143 countries. St. Kitts and Nevis ranked 3rd regionally and 27th globally with access to 151 countries. While Antigua and Barbuda ranked 4th regionally and 28th globally with access to 150 countries. This is Nation Beat. Coming up beneficiaries of government's $10 million school rehabilitation program, welcome the comfort. Welcome back. As the country looks to increase its economic competitiveness, St. Lucia's are benefiting from modern computer programming skills training encompassed in the series of innovation programs introduced in the education sector. Among them is robotics, digital literacy and computer coding. More from Alicia Ali. The 12-week pilot computer coding workshop was the realization of a partnership between the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development alongside the Caribbean Science Foundation. It aims to increase student interest in science and engineering careers, especially that of computer science. Curriculum specialist for technology and integration, Jermaine Anthony said this workshop serves to encourage the formation of more globally competitive ICT companies. It is really a bit scary if you think about artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, Internet of Things and all of a sudden we are nowhere in the scope in terms of developing, producing, manipulating those things. We cannot continue to be just consumers looking out for the latest Samsung iPhone and we have no role to play in development. Cardinal Ward is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT. Professor Ward also serves as the interim director of the Caribbean Science Foundation. He is encouraging more young people to consider a career in the field. The big box is in computer science where you are going to make life easy for lots of people by writing code that succinct, short, powerful, using mathematical algorithms and tools to enable computers to do their job faster. The pilot workshop funded by the United States Embassy in Barbados boasts of 20 diverse participants spanning gender and age categories. Participants age ranges from 16 years old to 40 years old while one-third of the participants are female. From the communications unit in the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development, I am Alicia Alley reporting. Still with the education sector under the Equip project, government has invested 10 million in the expansion, rehabilitation and furnishing of several learning institutions in a bid to improve the quality, relevance and effectiveness of instruction. Parliamentary representative for Ancillary Canaries Hon. Dominic Fede has welcomed the injection, noting the importance of the upgrades to a key segment of society. The Ministry of Education has invested approximately 10 million to develop school infrastructures around the island. Beneficiaries of the investments include the Ancillary Infant School, Canaries Infant School, Millet Primary School and Rosocombined School. The parliamentary representative of Ancillary Canaries expressed his gratitude towards the Ministry of Education for the works being done in schools in the constituency. We have been the beneficiary of tremendous work done by the Ministry of Education in a number of areas. And I think that this is our own commitment as a government to the need to ensure that our kids are in the best possible learning environment. We believe that this helps to improve the education system significantly. And it sends a strong message to the students and to the teachers and to all the stakeholders that the government is very serious and committed to their respective objectives. Brenda Joseph, principal of the Rosocombined School, stated that the renovations have boosted the morale of the students and expressed her appreciation on behalf of the school. When they came and saw the building was painted for the first time, I could see that the children were enlisted. And I am so happy that this is done in addition to the washrooms. And I think that our children now would really appreciate school even more because they realize that they are being cared for, the facilities that we need for them to really perform well, the facilities are there. The principal explained that the newly renovated building will be housed in grade 6 classes as well as the special education class. From the Government Information Service, I am Manisha Antoine reporting. That's Nation Beat. Join us next time on NTN at 7.30pm with a repeat at 7.30am and on this station as we fill the pulse and heart of our community. You can also catch up with us anytime on the St. Lucia Government Facebook page or YouTube channel. I am Janelle Norville.