St. Maarten Private Eye

Photos from yesterday, if this is the tank mentioned, then as as far as we could tell, it does not appear to be in use, it seems to be unfinished and has no top. The second photo shows such pretty greens that I had to post it.

Next time you go over the Prins Bernhard bridge, take a look down into the water, is does not look healthy. The fountains, which used to oxegenise the pond have not been working for a very long time now. In fact, they should NOT be used or reparied/switched on, until the water has been thoughly TESTED. Spraying fine water particles into the air for those who pass close by would be a serious helth risk without doing so.

Sewage usually causes algae which feeds on oxygen, I do not notice a great deal on the Fresh pond, but considering the color of the water I am not surprised, it looks almost dead, I am sure the fish are having a very hard time. Which means less food for birds and lizards. Eventually even the mangroves will start to die.

'Fresh Pond" is a environmental disaster unfolding in my opinion.

LH

LH

As i was commuting to work there was an earth mover doing some work on the side of the road just before the zaggersgut bridge and my commute back i notice that access has been made to the pond. It looks like a 'ramp' has been made. Is this to facilitate sewage dumping directly into the pond?

Wow, that sludge looks real nasty. Now thats a real shame. About the comprehensive water and sewage plan. What I dont understand is this?

Why does GEBE wait for Govt. to ask them or otherwise to present their own proposal. Only when another company brings a proposal, we then hear that GEBE can do this and that. Why wait Gebe, bring your ideas to the table and make them known to the public. I am willing to bet that if that would happen and the public endorces such, that ANY Govt, would HAVE to go along with it because of the support.

Until this happens, we can all keep hoping for solutions cause I dont see none on the horizon in this respect. One thing I know, the current commissioner of Public Works should loose that portfolio cause he just doesnt care about these issues.

I’ll have to agree with you that NV GEBE should have taken a proactive approach to the sewage situation and should have not waited for government intentions, however, you must remember that a comprehensive island wide sewage system is government authority, in other words, you will need government approval to maintain and operate an island wide sewage and waste water system catering to the needs of the entire island.

I don’t see this as an obstruction for NV GEBE if they did indeed present to Government a proposal because once the master plan and feasibility plan is properly put together it certainly would have been acceptable by Government.

On the other hand NV GEBE did submit a proposal and the question then should be ask, what is that status of that proposal? It will be good to note the following, when Intaquin got into the picture, NV GEBE realized government “serious” intention and did question Government on its inability to allow them to be involved in the process. This would have given them the chance to compete for the job, and from that approach it worked out to be better for all of us, why? Because it’s always good to have at least two bidders for a job/task, it creates/fosters a competition for the bidders and hence can facilitate price reduction for the job, so the idea that NV GEBE got involved is not a bad one, even though it was at a later time, meaning after the Intaquin proposal.

After NV GEBE got into the picture Government was then forced to accept them, and when NV GEBE proposal was submitted to government they took a hands off approached on deciding whose proposal was better, this was not a bad decision by government too, they henceforth decided to allow UNESCO-IHE to evaluate the two proposal and recommend which of the two was better, if you followed history well then you would have known that UNESCO-IHE has chosen NV GEBE proposal the best of the two.

So why haven’t the UNESCO-IHE approval not given the time of light, well it’s a legal issue now. Intaquin in the mean time has taken Government to court, however luckily for all of us they loose the case but base on one minor technicality, and that is, Government did not decided who to give the job too.
Once the decision is made, and we know it will have to go to NV GEBE (base on the independent analysis and recommendation of UNESCO-IHE).

Intaquin tried suing government for loss of business, however, how can Government be sued for a decision they have not made as yet on who to give the task too. In the mean time all Intaquin has to do is wait, patiently wait until Government makes that decision and if they do and it’s not in Intquin’s favor then the court case will resurface once more. This is one of the major reason why government hasn’t touch that hot, potentially burning comprehensive island wide sewage and waste water issue.