The saying “it’s never too late” came to mind when reading in Monday’s paper that the project to remove boat wrecks from Simpson Bay Lagoon and surroundings is finally starting. It has been 3½ years since Hurricane Irma and the question was raised earlier in this column whether pulling wrecks from the water perhaps required a rocket scientist.
To be fair, the US $14 million project realised by the National Recovery Program Bureau (NRPB) with means from the Dutch-sponsored Trust Fund administered by the World Bank involves much more than that, including clearing related debris from the shoreline. The wrecks are to be salvaged, decommissioned and disposed of in an environmentally-responsible way, whereby any remaining hazardous waste is shipped abroad in containers.
Some concern had recently been expressed about possibly filling the lagoon when heavy equipment was seen working on the site near the causeway where the operation will take place, but Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI Egbert Doran assured that it only regarded levelling the terrain. The plot of land made available by government is being fenced in because it is located along the road to the airport and must be left clean once the work has been completed.
While salvage company KMS and its supervisor EOS that got the job are both from the Netherlands, it is important to involve locals in the field where possible. After all, experience shows that another storm with similar consequences cannot be excluded and the more relevant on-island knowledge is gained, the better.
