 Buildwaif resilience in mind, understanding of the impact climate change is having on vulnerable countries like St. Lucia, was a sentiment of UK minister and COP26 champion for the UK, Honourable Anne-Marie Trevland, who visited the island to get a first-hand view of some of the climate adaptation projects in St. Lucia funded by the UK government. Glenn Simon reports. Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth from the United Kingdom and Marie Trevelyan visited St. Lucia to witness first-hand some of the adaptation projects funded by the UK government. One of the key projects she visited was the Millennium Highway and West Coast Road Rehabilitation Project. I'm really looking forward to seeing for myself exactly where this road will go and to understand just how important it's going to be for so many of St. Lucia's residents but also of course for tourists as they come to visit your wonderful island. Minister Trevelyan is also the adaptation and resilience champion for COP26, hosted in the UK this year. She noted that vulnerable countries like St. Lucia face challenges due to big climatic changes such as flooding, which washes away roads. She stressed the importance of building new structures with resilience in mind, understanding the impacts of climate change. We are doing the same in the UK. We are building roads that have to be more resilient to our weather shocks and that's part of what we want to be doing as we make sure that the funds that we spend to help infrastructure for those countries that need it too is doing exactly the same thing so that St. Lucia citizens have the opportunity to benefit from solid infrastructure which means that economic growth can continue and we can see St. Lucia go from strength to strength. The minister and her team received an overview of the Millennium Highway project which outlined areas such as project scope, requirements, funding, risks, and project timeline. Covenant Secretary and Minister of Infrastructure Iva Daniel, who accompanied the minister on the tour, said this is a project that all St. Lucia should be excited about due to the road safety, sustainability and resilience considerations featured in the design of the project. This project, the design wasn't I could say not the typical design. It's one where in there was the issue of the climate vulnerability assessment that had to be conducted prior to and that had to inform the design that the consultant had to put together. The consultant also had to take into consideration the outcome of an IRAP study which is a road safety study and there are also other issues of gender related matters that have to be taken on board. We need to have taken on board the matters with the project affected persons. We need to ensure that those vendors that will be displaced, that there is a new location for them or there is some manner in which that would satisfy them that they can continue to survive in this country. He said the overall project has been divided into three lots. Lot 1 has been awarded and is due to commence in September 2021. Lot 2 and 3 are being rescoped for rebidding. Nicholas Johnny is the project coordinator for the Millennium Highway and West Coast Road Rehabilitation Project. This represents a major infrastructural project of existing roads, approximately 40.2 kilometers of road. It commences in castries at the Burnon Roundabout and it ends in Soufret at the Soufret Bridge though. 6.1 kilometers from castries to Curley Sack. You have 11 kilometers from Curley Sack to Ansleray, inclusive of the reconstruction of the Ansleray Bridge, which will see the demolition of the existing bridge behind us and the reconstruction of a new bridge, Tulane Bridge and then you have the final segment which will be from Ansleray all the way down to Soufret. Along the tour we spoke to two individuals from Marigou and Ansleray respectively who will be directly impacted by the project. They expressed their satisfaction with the level of consultation and arrangements made to facilitate them during and post project execution. It will be better for me in the long run because I'm not really safe where I am because I'm on the roadside sometimes I move further away from the road. The project is estimated at US $54 million, comprising UK safe funding of 69% per cent, a CDB loan of 15% and 17% is funded by the government of Saint Lucia. When completed, the project will improve the overall road network, improve infrastructural resilience and connectivity which is projected to foster greater economic activity for Saint Lucia. For the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, Glenn Simon reporting.