Water is life
A letter sent to the Island Council confirms that the Executive Council intends to get out of its current contract with Enerserve for the production of drinking water and sign a new contract with Air-Fin. According to Commissioner Marlin, the intention is to safeguard the water supply to the island for the coming years.
While the current demand is 12,000 cubic metres per day, the guaranteed supply will be 12,300 cubic metres per day, and the production capacity will be increased from 13,500 to 16,500 cubic metres per day. As it’s a contract for 10 years, this raises the question: should the demand surpass 12,300 cubic metres, would the additional water supply also be guaranteed?
The new water plant planned at Cupecoy with a capacity of 3,000 cubic metres and the two reservoirs to be built should in any case make the water supply more reliable.
Considering the planned investments and the fact that the Island Territory must take over the current installations from Enerserve and then transfer them to Air-Fin, the question can be asked how it is possible that the water production cost will go down by about a million guilders a year. Whether such a reduction will be to the benefit of the consumer is also unclear, because the contract states that any extra cost resulting from the need to adhere to the new drinking water decree will be included in the water price.
The latter also raises the question who will control whether the additional operational cost and investments are indeed strictly to comply with the new regulations.
But it is positive that the Island Territory, to meet the growing demand resulting from the rapid economic development of St. Maarten, is apparently able to get out from under a water contract that had another three years to run, without financial or other consequences. The fact that Air-Fin is represented by the founder and former director of Enerserve may have something to do with that.
All in all, clean water is probably the most important necessity of life and nothing to play with. It’s extremely important to ensure a reliable, low-cost, adequate and quality water supply to both residents and visitors. The fact that the plans are based on a report of a recognised Dutch water advice bureau like IWACO and involve one of the pioneers of reverse osmosis water production in not just St. Maarten, but the Caribbean, inspires confidence that this will indeed be the case.
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