That St. Maarten has signed a US $2.6 million project document with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is in in principle good news. It concerns house repairs, clean-ups and fixing community structures.
The approach of working closely with government agencies and using labour from the areas in question makes sense, although putting it into practice might take some doing. Local contractors have some experience in that regard, so it will be interesting to see how they approach the matter.
As stated before, overlapping with similar plans involving the White and Yellow Cross Care Foundation (WYCCF) and Government’s own roof repair programme must be prevented. The former will target 45 homes and the latter 480, starting with 150 priority cases.
These early recovery relief initiatives are obviously welcome, but it’s also important to see progress on the long-term rebuilding effort with funds provided for this purpose by the Netherlands via the World Bank, to keep the hard-hit tourism economy going as well. Suggestions in this column included properly tackling the growing garbage problem and creating a more secure walkway to town for cruise passengers.
Other ideas could be giving a significant boost to local agriculture by supporting existing growers and stimulating others to farm. There are several ways to do so effectively and the Dutch have acquired considerable knowledge in this field over the years.
The destination’s culinary fame is an essential aspect of its hospitality industry and widespread availability of fresh ingredients could significantly enhance that reputation especially nowadays, when people are becoming increasingly conscious of what they eat and its impact on their health. Producing more of its own food would have the added advantage of making the island less vulnerable in terms of depending almost completely on imports.
