Friday’s front page story headlined “GEBE becoming stable, cash situation improving” led to considerable hilarity. Readers pointed out the still-quite-frequent power outages and water distribution problems to argue that the picture is in fact far from rosy.
It’s nevertheless comforting to know that the Dutch-side utilities provider is not at risk of falling into the abys as some had suggested earlier. While its liquidity dropped from 43.175 million Netherlands Antilles guilders in August 2017 to NAf. 29.885 million last January, it was back up to about NAf. 33 million a month ago.
GEBE may even end up with a break-even result over 2018, although there could be a loss of less than NAf. 5 million. A settlement with government on what parties owe each other, including concession fees, is yet to be reached, which should leave the company with an estimated NAf. 2 million debt to its sole shareholder.
Good news for the general public is the imminent arrival of 180 additional LED light heads. This should allow for the repair of streetlights in at least a few spots where such is still lacking.
At the same time own means have been used for the urgent construction of three water storage tanks to replace some destroyed by Hurricane Irma. This was needed to tackle “acute” water pressure issues.
However, the remainder of the lighting – and other projects like more underground cabling – depends on external financing, including potential involvement of the World Bank-managed Trust Fund. Hopefully the latter can be achieved, because ensuring the supply of electricity and water as well as adequate illumination of public areas is certainly important to enhancing St. Maarten’s resilience to natural disasters.
It’s obviously also crucial to the still-recovering tourism economy of the island that provides for the livelihood of practically all its inhabitants. As visitor numbers continue to rebound, so must the products and services the dominant hospitality industry relies on to offer guests the best possible experience.
