Tuesday’s mishap in which a man was run over and killed by heavy equipment on the dump is most regrettable. An accident can always occur, but one could argue this was just waiting to happen.
It’s not the first time either. So long as persons are able to search unsupervised there for still valuable items, that risk will always exist.
Efforts have been made over the years to isolate, guard and secure the local landfill, but vehicles needing to dispose of waste must obviously be allowed in and it seems impossible to keep all others out. That’s a recurring problem not only in St. Maarten, but at many similar facilities, including Malpais in Curaçao.
The reality is that people desperate enough to rummage through trash looking for what they can use, including discarded food, are apparently hard to stop. Some may consider it a welcome form of informal recycling, especially because there isn’t even any garbage separation to speak of, but certainly the current situation is far from ideal.
There was thankfully some good news to report as well, with TUI adding another flight to Princess Juliana International Airport SXM. This not only increases the frequency of the carrier’s service to three times per week, but provides a direct connection with yet another city, in this case Brussels.
Dutch travellers will no doubt use it, particularly if they can’t get a seat on aircraft leaving from Amsterdam, but this also makes the destination that much more attainable for Belgians. In that sense the new airlift can help enhance the island’s European source market considerably.
Of course, the service is to be combined with Punta Cana, which means a number of passengers won’t get off the plane here, but the same goes for the existing TUI flights that return via Curaçao. There is actually a potential benefit in that travellers heading towards the Dominican Republic are less likely to know about St. Maarten, so this will offer at least the opportunity for them to view a bit of its scenery during landing and take-off.
After years of seeing Curaçao and Aruba do very well with tourism from the Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg), it appears “The Friendly Island” is on its way to finally start catching up.
