Dutch State Secretary of Kingdom Relations Alexandra van Huffelen’s presentation to the Second Chamber of Parliament in The Hague about the St. Maarten Trust Fund (see related stories) appears to have – once again – debunked a narrative spread by some that the Hurricane Irma-related millions involved are not benefitting the population. Committed so far is US $358 million for 11 projects, of which $172 million has already been spent.
An additional US $38 million was approved for three new endeavours in the areas of social housing, mental healthcare, and wastewater treatment. Few would argue that these are not important issues with a direct impact on people’s quality of life.
Perhaps even more pressing is tackling the dump crisis that is part of the Emergency Debris Management Project for which $25 million was reserved. Another $60 million has now been made available to – jointly with government – work on a comprehensive and sustainable solid waste processing solution that will ultimately benefit everyone.
More funding for quality affordable living accommodations is certainly welcome as well. There remains an acute shortage in the lower- and middle-income brackets that largely existed before September 2017 but only got worse since, despite the Red Cross Roof Repair Programme and fixing 269 homes under the Emergency Recovery Project.
The latter was also the one that got the biggest budget of $100.2 million – followed by the economically essential airport terminal reconstruction ($92 million) – and will now get $19.5 million more. That is because it concerns rebuilding vital resilience infrastructure, including the Fire Department and Ambulance complex, the Philipsburg police station and local schools, placing cabling and pipes underground, etc. A new Meteorological Office will also be built.
Of course, all was not perfect during the past five years, and things moved too slowly at times. However, one can hardly deny that making use of these exceptional means the Netherlands provided under management of the World Bank for projects executed by the National Recovery Program Bureau (NRPB) offers a unique opportunity to address several major problems facing the country, which is simply not to be passed up on.
