 Welcome to Nation Beat. I am General Novel bringing you this brief on the pulse of our nation and highlights around the heart of St. Lucia. The Department of Health and Wellness takes a proactive approach to combating Dengue fever. The Ancelary Canaries MP praises the resilience and resourcefulness of the people of Canaries and the physical education teachers are set to go. The Department of Health and Wellness is taking a proactive approach to combat Dengue fever in St. Lucia amid rising cases in some Caribbean territories. The Ministry of Health in Jamaica, for instance, at the start of the year declared a Dengue outbreak. With more on how St. Lucia's health officials are preempting such a scenario, is Fidel Neptune. With the recent Dengue situation in the Caribbean region, the Department of Health and Wellness felt it necessary to ramp up its preventative measures to combat Dengue fever on the island. Efforts to stop mosquito breeding have been increased and the public is encouraged to work with the Department in reducing mosquito breeding sites. Acting National Epidemiologist Dr. Michelle Versoises, although Dengue fever is endemic to St. Lucia, it is necessary that measures are put in place to reduce the incidence of this virus. We at the Ministry of Health and Wellness, we monitor the trends of Dengue on a weekly basis. We receive reports through our syndromic reporting. We receive reports from all healthcare facilities as well as lab reports to confirm the diagnosis of Dengue fever in St. Lucia. For the year 2018, we did notice a slight increase in the number of cases, mainly in the latter months, which does coincide with what we traditionally see. However, we remain vigilant and we continue to work on our vector control strategy for 2019. Acting Chief Environmental Health Officer Pakul Ragnanand says the Division of Environmental Health will continue to work to fight Dengue by reducing mosquito breeding and the adult mosquito population. We have stepped up our surveillance activity in terms of doing house to house visitation, looking at breeding sites for the Edis-Egypti mosquito because the Edis-Egypti mosquito is the main culprit in the transmission of Dengue fever. Therefore, we have stepped up our surveillance. We have also increased our treatment for the larva. It is the intention of the organization from early February to look at our adult mosquito population. And as part of that effort, we are going to intensify the fogging operations throughout the island because fogging is really a rapid knock-down of the adult population of the mosquito. Ragnanand also highlighted that the Division of Environmental Health will strengthen its community and educational programs as to sensitize inclusions about eliminating mosquito breeding sites. Reporting from the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, I am Fennel Neptune. Recognizing that spatial planning is critical for delivering environmental, social and economic benefits, as well as more sustainable and predictable conditions for investment and development, the Government of St. Lucia, through the Disaster of Vulnerability Reduction Project DVRP, has contracted a firm to work alongside local agencies led by the Department of Physical Planning to establish the country's spatial data infrastructure. As an introduction meeting earlier this month, Project Manager of Cadesta International, N.H. van der Wegg, noted that the three-man team was an island, primarily to listen carefully to the expectations of participants and to emphasize the importance of data sharing in community and national development. We asked the consultant just why government should be investing in such a project. Every government decision concerns a specific location or an area or zone, so you need to have good spatial information about this location. That's why the location information is key to having a good and profound understanding of why you take that decision. It gives the government the ability to plan ahead because you can see patterns in growth or that some event declines, I don't know. But that is why you need spatial information to make that applicable to a specific location or area. The consultancy team comprises experts in the field of data policy issues, digital government, business policy approaches and long-term strategic decisions. Asked for his assessment of participants' engagement, this was the consultant's response. The involvement was great. We had a very interactive, lively conversation. All participants really enjoyed answering the questions and even reacting to the propositions, so I'm very happy that they were there. Having formulated a stakeholder engagement plan, the team will return on island next month to hold in-depth one-on-one meetings with individual government departments involving the spatial data infrastructure project. From the Government Information Service, Lisa Joseph reporting. Still on the capacity building front, the St Lucia Hotel and the Tourism Association has partnered with a key United Nations agency to ensure environmental sustainability, poverty reduction and capacity development in the country. The St Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association, SLHTA, and the Global Environment Facility United Nations Development Program, Small Grants Program, officially mark their partnership with a signing ceremony. SLHTA's President Karleen Chubasi-Escoy described the signing as a milestone achievement in the association's efforts to establish stronger alliances with global partners who share similar commitments and aspirations. Our signing of this memorandum of understanding between our two agencies sets the intention to collaborate on projects of mutual interest which will aim to reduce poverty and promote environmental sustainability. Given our ongoing challenges with pollution, unsustainable agricultural practices, high energy costs, habitat conservation and the unsustainability of some traditional livelihoods, our cooperation is key to unlocking sustainable solutions to these challenges. The signing ceremony served as an affirmation of the institution's intent to jointly identify opportunities for collaboration in areas that fall within the priorities of the Jeff UNDP-SGP Country Programme Strategy and the SLHTA's Programme Plan for Sinclusion. Jeff's national coordinator, Jazz Romulus, indicated that areas of collaboration include climate change, biodiversity conservation, land degradation, international waters and chemical and waste with the aim of meeting the objectives of environmental sustainability, poverty reduction and capacity development. So it is bringing resources together but also bringing the experience of the SLHTA in tourism and our experience internationally and in the environmental field. So both organizations have incomparative advantages. However, understanding as Jesus Spitz said, we cannot do it alone. No one country, no one person, no one government can do it alone. This is testimony to the acknowledgement of that deficiency and our constant attempt to think in silos will not solve our problems. So here's an example where we have understood that and we are putting it to work and we hope we can annually give you all some kind of report on how that alliance has progressed. The areas of collaboration will include climate smart agriculture, alternative energy, pollution reduction, habitat and species conservation and sustainable livelihoods. This is NationBeat, coming up the display of resilience and resourcefulness by the community of countries and physical education teachers are set to go. No one ever reads the fine print but if you use a cell phone, landline, the internet or cable TV, read the terms of the service contract carefully and pay attention to the type of service, the length of the contract, contract renewal, penalties, fees for services, termination and reconnection, fee increases and how much notice is required. The option not to receive advertisements and sharing personal information with third parties. Do not sign a contract that you are not satisfied or comfortable with. This message is brought to you as a public service announcement by ECTEL, the NTRC and this station. Welcome back. The community of countries is pulling resources to ensure that residents benefit from the services of an emergency responder unit. The efforts have come in for high praise by the parliamentary representative, Harris Anisia Antecidan. The St. Lucia Social Development Fund and the Canaries UK Association are undertaking a number of fundraising initiatives to procure an ambulance for the community of Canaries. The community which was previously serviced by an ambulance for over 20 years has been without such services for the last four years. Andrew Lansico is the head of the Canaries Ambulance Fund raising committee. This is something that we've done, we did in the past successfully and the Canaries community and our UK counterparts take pride in knowing that we have given ourselves something and not rely totally on other people. The Canaries people have always been resilient and self-reliant. Growing up in the past, I know in Canaries you needed very little cash to have things done. Anytime something happened, the community people rallied together and had things done. So I see this initiative as something to bring back the spirit. The event of several fundraisers is a lunch and auction which is being supported by the business community at Royal Ten Beach Resort and Spa on Sunday, January 27th. Parliamentary representative for Ancelary Canaries, Honourable Dominic Fede. The event is already sold out. It's a cultural afternoon which will see a number of performances both in terms of music and dance from various groups in Canaries. And really it is when the rest of St. Lucia will meet Canaries for a very worthy cause. The UK Association has also confirmed that they are doing a fundraiser in London and that is with a view to us reaching the budget that we have. Minister for Health Honourable Mary Isaac commanded the Canaries community group on the initiative taken. We are spending a lot more as a government, as a people than we used to on healthcare and we foresee that getting to be a lot more expensive as time goes by. So I must applaud again the community for taking it on their own to do this initiative. They are removing a lot of pressure on the Ministry of Health as far as us trying to source this resource for them. The government of St. Lucia, through the Ministry of Health, has already provided a driver and first aid personnel in addition to agreeing to facilitate insurance and maintenance of the facility. Information service, I am Anitya Antwan reporting. The national school sports season is set following a meeting with key players. Brian O'Brien tells us more. The Ministry of Development and Sports has engaged district coordinators for primary schools and physical education teachers at secondary schools on the island in preparation for school sports events to be organized by the ministry in a second school term. School sports coordinator and ministry, Isabel Alexander Markey says the recent meeting was intended to recap on school sports events for the first term and plan ahead for the second term. The second term we have the Chakanfield events, both for primary and secondary schools and of course table tennis for the primary schools and under 19 crickets as United Insurance and the 19 male and female volleyball and that's it for the secondary schools in the second term. The first school sports event for the second term will be Interdistrict Primary Schools Table Tennis. Schedule to start this month and from the Ministry of Youth Development for Sports, I'm Brian O'Brien. 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 General Norvel.