Dutch State Secretary of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops applauded the four delegations at the recent Inter-Parliamentary Kingdom Consultation IPKO in The Hague for agreeing to work together to improve waste management in the Dutch Caribbean (see related story). While St. Maarten already faces a landfill crisis, Aruba and Curaçao too are increasingly dealing with problems in this area.
IPKO attendees visited the huge AVR Rijnmond waste processing facility near Rotterdam to get inspiration. They foresee joint procurement procedures for setting up garbage incinerators on the island.
That can have various benefits, including negotiating better conditions and reducing cost for project preparation, etc. However, this collective approach should not lead to delaying, because more countries are involved, the tackling of what in any case locally is an extremely urgent matter.
Knops mentioned that St. Maarten will host a meeting seeking cooperation in the region to address the solid waste issue in a structural way. Again, that sounds nice, just like seeking a comprehensive solution with the French side, but not if it means continuing in the current untenable situation even longer.
While the term “sustainable” is popular nowadays with good reason, the two frequently smoking dumps near Philipsburg have become an acute major health, environmental and economic hazard. They are in effect a national emergency and must be treated as such.
