St. Maarten Nature Foundation stands corrected. Its press release about illegal dumping of raw sewage at the landfill published in the paper of June 30 turned out to be incorrect (see related story).
Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI Christopher Emmanuel said the pump truck had in fact been working for the Ministry at the time. The crew had cleared a drainage pit and the collected muck that supposedly included oil could not be processed at the wastewater purification plant on Illidge Road.
It was therefore taken to a designated area of the dump. While admitting that this is not an ideal situation, Emmanuel pointed out that it’s been going on for years.
The heavy equipment operator in question was consequently unfairly being targeted after only doing what Government ordered and this could lead to a court case the Minister is trying to prevent. Mention was also made of the possible involvement of civil servants in recording and disseminating a video of the incident.
That is all well and good, but it does raise questions about what apparently ends up in St. Maarten’s regular rainwater runoff systems, so bad that the sewage plant can’t handle it. Surely the content should not include foreign substances such as petro-chemical waste.
Part of the reason may have to do with a complete lack of zoning by that same Ministry, which has led to all kinds of businesses opening up in residential areas. Many of these garages and other industrial-type activities fail to adhere to even minimum standards regarding, for example, waste disposal.
It’s called pollution.
