St. Maarten Private Eye

An Invitation for Expression of Interest - SXM Waste and Dump

For over a week I've been thinking about how to tackle this story and issue, an issue which has been blogged about many times here on SXM PE by various writers, and which I have been delegated to take on this time. It is an issue that the solution decided upon by our Exco will have a major impact on the future of the island, it's people and their health.

It's a vitally important issue, which since the govt advertisement placed in the papers (the DH at least) on the 28th February, nothing has been reported on since. If you missed the ad then you probably know nothing about it, fortunately for you, us 'Treehugger Types" notice these things :)

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Read it carefully because we, the public, environmentalists and users of SXM PE need to discuss it.

So there it is, an invitation to express interest in how to solve St. Maarten's garbage and waste disposal, an subject that we here and foundations have repeatedly called for solutions to. The Dump. And that ad my friends, is probably going to be only transparency you will see about it.

I could say 'hang on a moment', whatever happened to the TNO Report from over 2 years ago? Or the waste (d) trips, proposed fees and co-operation with the French side who, by the way, are way ahead of us in dealing with the problem. I could question decision making and competence, but it's been done already.

No, I won't get into those details, I'll leave that for others, because that is not why I am writing, few people here need me to remind you of who is responsible for the state of the island's environment, pollution and congestion. We can discuss history and responsibility when the next election comes, right now we need to focus on now and what we here can do to have an influence on the final solutions to the very serious and urgent problem of our waste.

Do you trust the Exco and their puppet Dept Directors to make the right choices and decisions on this vital piece of SXM infrastructure?

What to do? What can we do? We are not a foundation or a stakeholder, we have extremely limited means to get information such as paying lawyers to get documents and information about the landfill. We are not a waste disposal company and even if we started one, or someone else did, it wouldn't qualify to express an interest. SXM does not have any civil rights organizations or watchdog, as far as I can tell, SXM PE is it.

What we can do is this........

There are many smart and informed people that come and read on SXM PE and it is up to you to get involved and chip in some time and energy. While we cannot ourselves 'express and interest' we can:

1/ Contact those who can and who perhaps probably know nothing about the ad from our govt and assist them where we are able to, to take up the invitation.

2/ We can do our own investigations on the WWW to find and discuss the possibilities that exist for a small island like us and present them to our local media and the govt, putting it in the public spotlight, we all stakeholders really.

3/ We can ask that any govt officials, civil servants or lawyers who are reading this to send SXM PE any documents, studies and information pertaining to the dump and waste in SXM.

4/ We can ask thousands of professionals and organizations out there in the World via the internet to share ideas, information and contacts.

I will be doing my own investigations of possible solutions for St. Maarten's waste and will post them below in comments. I should just say though that the real solutions to the problem are multiple, setting up a recycling plant or processing facility without other add ons like taxes on some imports, public education about recycling and sorting, including enforcement, and more, would probably be a disaster.

The Wiki Page on recycling is a good place to start I think.......

Feel free to chip in anytime :)

Caribdude

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