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PHILIPSBURG--United People’s (UP) party Member of Parliament (MP) Maurice Lake has issued a public call to all stakeholders involved in the stagnated waste-to-energy plant to get to work.
His call comes after Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs said last week that getting the project moving had encountered some difficulties. Lake wrote to Gumbs on July 13 requesting an update on the Solid Waste Ordinance and the progress of plans for the plant. He is still awaiting full answers to his questions.
The “only way†government can move forward is to sit down with the Steering Committee, utilities company GEBE and the company that won the bid to get the project moving again, he stated.
Lake said the public awareness programme to gradually introduce recycling also must start. This would also be the right time to get the law to ban single-use plastic bags, submitted to Parliament by MPs Frans Richardson and Johan Leonard, adopted by Parliament.
Lake recalled that during his tenure as Infrastructure Minister, which ended on December 19, 2014, his ministry and the steering committee for the waste-to-energy plant had been busy with the final stage of the bidding process. Government, its Legal Affairs Department and GEBE were reviewing the legal aspect of the draft concession agreement and other documents to be signed by Government and the company that won the bid, he said.
Legal Affairs was working on the draft Solid Waste Ordinance more than a year ago. That draft is “still on the desk today at Legal Affairs†and is yet to reach the floor of Parliament.
GEBE was looking into becoming involved in the project, at the time of Lake’s tenure. The plant was a “hot topic†in the campaign for the August 29, 2014, Parliamentary Elections. Since then, the players have changed at the company that won the bid and at GEBE.
“It’s very frustrating to see every day the landfill getting bigger and bigger without any results. … We just had this dump fire again during the passing of Tropical Storm Erika, and the dump became a hot topic again in Government and the community,†Lake said.
The development of the plant should be part of GEBE’s investment plan, he said, adding that if he had had more time as a minister he would have seen this through.
He foresees GEBE playing an instrumental role and taking the lead in the overall infrastructure of garbage, energy and sewage on the island.
Lake also wants to see the French and Dutch sides finalise the joint sewage plant project for Cole Bay as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, Democratic Party ((DP)) leader Member of Parliament Sarah Wescot-Williams said in a press statement that she had “solicited the support†of fellow MPs to request a meeting on the waste-to-energy project or any other system the government has in mind. She is awaiting the support of at least two MPs to make the meeting a reality.
She has taken note of GEBE’s comments on the project. “It gives an eerie feeling that we are heading back to the drawing board, unless Government intends to strong-arm GEBE into doing what it, the Government, wants.â€
