Native of the island, Tadzio Bervoets, director of the Sint Maarten Nature Foundation, and vice-president of the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance, regularly questions the government of the Dutch side about the landfill where all the rubbish is buried from Sint Maarten. He hopes that the supervision by the World Bank of the funds allocated by the Netherlands for reconstruction will make it possible to make this environmental and health problem a priority. Interview.
How long has the Pond Island (Philipsburg) landfill been in existence?
“The first landfill was located near the path we take to go to the Sint Maarten natural pools from Pointe Blanche. Where we still see scrap metal. In the mid-70s, when it created the small island on the salt pond (Great Salt pond) to have more land, the government of the day decided to install the landfill there.
But then the island experienced a tourist boom. The elected officials did not think that the location was not suitable: a wetland, in the middle of the capital of the Dutch side, and surrounded by dwellings. They installed it there, without really thinking about the problem that it could become and that it just happened to be. From the start, it was mismanaged. What is more, Sint Maarten has never really excelled in the management of public procurement, etc. Personal interests always come into play.
Then in 1995 there was Luis. All the debris on the island landed at the dump, increasing the height of the artificial hill. We also started to call it Mont Luis ”.
Why does it burn constantly?
"From that moment, rather than establishing a realistic plan that could have resulted in solutions, the landfill was left there. Several times, for years, there have been discussions to move it, replace it with something else. But nothing has ever been done.
Waste has become more and more important but without effective management or sorting.
As everything goes to the same place in the landfill, the chemical reactions caused by the decomposition of all the waste cause internal combustion.
What people don't realize is that the landfill is still burning. Those responsible for managing it do not let the methane escape and do nothing to prevent this combustion.
So in a time of dryness, or when the wind picks up, or when someone does something stupid like soldering above the trash, the flames get bigger inside and the top catches fire. This is why there have been large clouds of smoke for the past fifteen years.
The situation has gotten out of control since Irma. Lots of debris was brought to the landfill. When it became problematic, they moved them to a second landfill: the Baby Dump, across the road. The Baby Dump is affected by the same problems: mismanagement, lack of sorting ... so it burns too. In addition, the tires are stored near the waste. When the smoke is black it is usually because the tires are also burning ” (continuation and end of the interview in our edition of tomorrow).
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