Local News
Sint Maarten debris project received US$60 million more in 2023, with Pond Island resettlement under way
The Emergency Debris Management Project received US$60 million in extra Trust Fund financing in March 2023. Under the project, 215 individuals living near the Pond Island landfill were to be resettled.
By SXM Daily ยท
Reported 31 March 2023.
Sint Maarten's Emergency Debris Management Project (EDMP) received US$60 million in additional funding from the World Bank-managed Sint Maarten Trust Fund, the National Recovery Program Bureau (NRPB) announced in March 2023. The grant came from the Government of the Netherlands.
What the money covers
The NRPB said the funds would close a financing gap in the original project, which was approved in December 2018 for US$25 million. They cover debris management in communities and at the landfill, and help build up the government's technical capacity. The bureau credited the project with fewer open landfill fires and with the removal of 139 shipwrecks from Simpson Bay Lagoon.
Resettlement at Pond Island
The project also included the resettlement of people living around the Pond Island landfill. In January 2023 NRPB director Claret Connor told The Daily Herald that 215 individuals were to be resettled in total, and that agreements had been signed with 138 project-affected persons, a group that includes businesses. Those affected were offered either another home or cash. Connor said the resettlement was being done in a humanitarian way.
For more on the lagoon, see our guide to Simpson Bay Lagoon and Mullet Pond.
Sources
- https://nrpbsxm.org/edmp-receives-60-million-in-additional-funding/
- https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/involuntary-resettlement-can-be-done-in-a-humanitarian-way-says-nrpb
Source: https://nrpbsxm.org/edmp-receives-60-million-in-additional-funding/