Community
Sint Maarten presented plan to close the Pond Island landfill by 2032
At a public consultation on 3 September 2025, the government and the NRPB presented plans to reshape, dike, cap and green the Pond Island landfill, with construction expected to start in 2026 and closure by 2032.
By SXM Daily ยท
Reported 4 September 2025.
Sint Maarten's government set out plans to close the Pond Island landfill by 2032 at a public consultation at the Belair Community Center on 3 September 2025, according to a government release published the next day. More than 200 residents attended, the government said.
Illustrative: the Great Salt Pond. Photo: Anne and David / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
The session was hosted by the Ministry of VROMI and the National Recovery Program Bureau (NRPB). The NRPB had first consulted more than 90 stakeholders on the island's waste future in 2022.
The plan
According to the release, engineering firms Witteveen+Bos and TAUW presented studies on the landfill's current risks and the proposed fix. The plans include reshaping the waste mass to make it safer and easier to manage, building a protective ring dike, and covering the site with clean soil and vegetation to stabilise the slopes.
Construction was expected to begin in 2026 and last about three years. Once finished, the government said, the site would be stabilised, capped and vegetated, greatly reducing the risks.
What was said
VROMI Minister Patrice Gumbs said the landfill had long been "a symbol of frustration" and a health risk, and that the country now had the financing, expertise and will to act. NRPB director Claret Connor said the session continued a conversation started with the community in 2022.
The government said the US$85 million Emergency Debris Management Project (EDMP), which funds the landfill work, had already removed more than 130 shipwrecks, cleaned 10 kilometres of shoreline and resettled families and businesses next to the landfill. Residents asked about recycling, medical waste and tyres, and some voiced scepticism because of past delays.