The cancelation of Monday’s continuation of a Parliament meeting on the state of affairs regarding Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) is indeed regrettable (see related story). It was postponed by the chair for unknown reasons, but the intention here is not to point fingers.
Fact is that the public had been told by caretaker Finance Minister Perry Geerlings that final agreements to finance the terminal’s much-needed rebuilding would be signed last week with the World Bank for a grant from the Dutch-sponsored Recovery Fund and the European Investment Bank (EIB) for a soft loan, each of US $50 million. Nothing more was heard since, which understandably raises questions due to the urgency of the matter for the tourism economy that provides the population’s livelihood.
But it’s not just the airport. The lack of recent information on construction of a new hospital is worrisome too, adding to already existing concerns about the contractor being under insolvency protection by the Italian government.
That the incoming coalition has been highly critical of these projects merely increases the uncertainty, although the interim cabinet they are about to install has a clear mandate from the governor to continue both as planned, based on agreements made. Still, it creates doubt when statements are made like the one by independent parliamentarian Luc Mercelina during the recent poverty eradication seminar at University of St. Martin published in Monday’s paper; namely, “Why do we need a brand-new hospital when we need roofs over people’s heads?”
Very little is also being said about the project to clean up the boat wrecks and remaining rubbish from Hurricane Irma in and around Simpson Bay Lagoon, more than two years later. The same thing goes for the fire-suppression activities at the landfill for which people living too close to that part of the dump would have been relocated.
Perhaps now more than ever, transparency and openness about developments surrounding these projects are what is needed, rather than a deafening silence.
