Three weeks after Hurricane Irma, residents face a severe shortage of drinking water. The desalination plant on which they depend only runs at a third of its capacity.
For certain districts, the most populated in addition, electricity is still not restored either. As time passes, health conditions become difficult.
From difficult, they become deplorable, especially in Sandy-Ground and Quartier d'Orléans. Despite the distribution of mineral water, some families have great difficulty in obtaining supplies. Solidarity obliges, households help themselves out as needed. But most are still unable to wash, cook, or do their business. Hell with young children.
On a daily basis, the technical teams, reinforced by local workers, work hard. But the authorities are unable to give a certain date for reparation.
On the island, legitimate impatience gives way to irritation. “We can't take it anymore, plague a Sandy-Ground resident. We destroyed the base of a fountain to draw the water below, but it is dirty and cloudy. When you wash with it, you stink. ”
2 m700 of water per day…
It must be said that the French part of Saint-Martin is a geological oddity. Dotted with mountains burnt by salt and the sun, it has only groundwater, today brackish. As a result, the homes are 100% dependent on a seawater desalination plant, largely destroyed by Irma.
As a sign that the issue around water is becoming essential, the plant is fiercely guarded by contingents from the Foreign Legion.
Of the three modules used to filter and then re-mineralize seawater, only one was able to be reactivated. The other two are buried under collapsed concrete blocks. The single turbine produces 2700 m3 of water daily, while the daily consumption of Saint-Martin is around 6500 m3.
In some streets, the urgency is such that the authorities face degradations. Whenever water is sent into the network, residents rush into the pipes, break them and directly punctuate tens of liters of water.
If the situation were to drag on, some doctors pointed out the risk of epidemics. The abundance of excrement and the absence of water to wash your hands encourage the development of bacteria.
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