The Chancellor of the University of the West Indies (UWI) is lamenting the region’s massive debt to international agencies due to the effects of natural disasters.
Speaking at the seventh Annual UWI Open Campus Ceremony for the Presentation of Graduates 2015, Professor Sir George Alleyne said the region’s debt burden, which is over $40 billion — based on a 2013 report — is due in large part to the battering it has endured due to weather systems.
He said the recent impact of Tropical Storm Erika, on Dominica, is a grim reminder of how the region could be devastated by natural disasters.
According to the Antigua Observer, the chancellor said the university has since offered to defer the fees of Dominican students attending the institution until 2016.
