The community confirmed that the collection of sargassum had started last Monday in the bay of Cul de Sac, the main site impacted in the French part. More than a ton of algae was removed in the morning and transported to the eco-site.
The COM is also in the process of awarding a public contract for pickup from six sites (Grande Caye, Cul de Sac, Mont Vernon, Baie de l'Embouchure, fish pond, Lucas Bay) for a period of one year.
The green brigades that had been set up in 2016-2017 are no longer active.
Just a year ago, the Minister for Ecological Transition Nicolas Hulot, came to the Antilles and announced a series of measures to combat massive and regular strandings in Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana and the northern islands.
The primary objective was to allow the algae to be collected within 48 hours of their arrival on the coast by financially helping the communities to acquire equipment. The State was then committed via an investment plan of 8 to 10 million over 2018-2019, funded half by endowment from the State, the rest coming from co-financing from the European Union and communities.
This is how the COM of Saint-Martin benefits from 741 euros, 500% of which is paid by the State; the other half being dependent on him. With this envelope, she must buy material to collect the algae. In the meantime, it has mandated companies to do so.
For the record, in 2017 she had already bought a dump truck with public funds but it had never been used because it had been damaged during a test.
Finally, among the other measures announced last year by the government was the launch of a website to communicate the measurements of H2S and ammonia releases directly and thus strengthen transparency and information for the population. . For the moment no site has been created, however the measures are available on that of Gwad'Air for Guadeloupe; the last press release dates from June 17 but does not concern Saint-Martin.
Likewise since December, Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy are less and less cited in the grounding alert bulletins produced by the Guadeloupe environmental department. Certainly the two islands are less impacted than Guadeloupe or Martinique, but are at their scale.
(Source: www.soualigapost.com)
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