That the first of two new pumps for the Salt Pond has arrived in St. Maarten (see related story) can be considered good news. It is now being installed at Sucker Garden, with testing to begin within the next two weeks.
A second one scheduled to come at the end of July will be located on Pond Island in a spot known as VROMI Yard. Its placement is expected to be completed by the end of August and the goal remains to have both operational before the peak of this hurricane season.
So far so good, because flooding has been an issue in the general area going as far back as Hurricane Lenny in 1999. At that time, much of Philipsburg was submerged for several days.
Despite the construction of floodgates near Zagers Gut and the increase of pumping capacity via the Rolandus Channel to sea, occasional problems continued over the years. Readers may remember how at one point the Fire Department had to use their valuable hoses, run them across the street and place road construction material over them so cars could continue to pass on top.
In November 2024, two successive Sundays with heavy rains caused water levels in the Salt Pond to rise by 55 centimetres (cm), overflowing onto the W.J.A. Nisbeth Road parking lot near the Salt Pickers roundabout. Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI Patrice Gumbs ordered the opening of the Fresh Pond channel to release excess water from both ponds into Great Bay. Combined with the use of pumps, this gradually reduced the levels to 65cm below sea level.
According to Minister Patrice Gumbs then, “the significant rainfall tested both our infrastructure and our capacity to respond. This effort is a part of our ongoing mission to improve preparedness for such weather events in the future.”
However, it happened after one of the pumps to manage water levels in the Great Salt Pond had been repaired in July of that same year. Work supposedly even started to fix a second broken one as well as rebuild its damaged platform.
Nevertheless, two more were ordered -reportedly with a 2.3-million-euro subsidy from the Dutch government- and will now be readied for this important job. Apparently none too soon.
