Le Hague, Oct 16 (Prensa Latina) The First Viceminister of Science, Technology and the Environment of Cuba (Citma), Fernando González Bermúdez, presented today before high authorities of The Netherlands, the Life Task, State plan to face climate change.

The Cuban offiicial, presently on a visit to this Dutch city leading a Citma delegation, was received by the director general of International Economic Relations, Marten Van den Berg.

Gonzalez Bermudez offered details of the meteorological and environmental panorama of the Caribbean nation, marked at present by a group of vulnerabilities in face of climate change, object of research for several years by specialists.

Among them, the extreme climatological events like hurricanes and also the rising of sea level that could rise by some 27 centimeters toward 2050 and 85 centimeters for 2100, according to estimates.

This phenomenon has also the consequence of the penetration of sea water into underground water reserves, that provide part of the water consumed by industries and agricultural sector.

According to the Cuban official, a total of 574 settlements present vulnerabilities to that situation.

To face climate change, the island promotes the Life Task, designed on scientific bases, with an integral and multisectorial focus that involves diverse social actors.

In this sense, the Citma visit to the Netherlands aims to know and learn from the Dutch experience, accumulated for centuries, in the work to manage waters and the sea.

The director general of the Ministry was impressed by the studies carried out by Cuba and the wideranging and complete vision of the Life Task and expressed the will to explore areas in order to establish a bilateral cooperation in this topic.

Van den Berg emphasized that both countries have similar visions on the phenomenon, centered on learning to live harmonically with the sea and to “build not against but with nature”.

The Citma delegation headed by First Viceminister carries out this week a visit to The Netherlands to known the local experience in water management, for which it plans a wide program of meetings and visits to projects on the field.