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PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten – Member of Parliament (MP) Claudius Toontje Buncamper of the USP faction in parliament, on Wednesday forwarded a letter to the council of ministers expressing his concern about the progress of the ongoing cleaning of boat wrecks in the Simpson Bay Lagoon and its shorelines and the Oyster Pond while the 2021 Atlantic hurricane seasonapproaches.While hepraised the organization for the decommissioning for the wrecks, the MP stated that it is unfortunatethatthe wrecks on the French part of thelagoonare notpart of this program andthat he isextremely concerned that the environmental aspect of the works will not meet its potential long term goal.The MP alsonoted that the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season starts in 26 days and the water in the lagoon shows no regards to the border. MPBuncamperquestionedifany sort of agreementexistswith the French part of the island regarding the removal of the wrecks in their waters to safeguard whatcanstillbesalvagedof our lagoon.And more disturbing to the MPis the Oyster pond lagoon which has been leftunattendedsince the passing of Hurricane Irma in 2017due to the World Banksstatementthat theydo not carry our works in disputed territories.While I understand theWorld Banksposition,I cannot understand our governments position nor that of the Netherlands the MP mentioned.Weareallaware ofwhat part of the OysterPondLagoon is being disputed,yet we allow the lagoon to suffer serious environmental damages because ofthenonchalant behavior of the Netherlands.In his letter addressed to the council of ministers,MP Buncamper notedthat afterHurricane Irmathe French governmentdischarged abargeinto the Oyster Pond Lagoonand cleaned up nearly all of the sunken vesselsthere.I cannot accept that our governmenthas not yetcontactedthe Ministryof Foreign affairsin the Netherlandstoindicateclearlywhich specific areaof the Oyster Pond Lagoon isunder dispute with the French Government,to enablethe World Banktoamend the ongoing project for the removal of shipwrecks to include the OysterPondLagoon.
MP Buncamper warned against allowing the cleaning team and their equipment to leave the island before completing the project, which will result in the environmental destruction of the Oyster Pond Lagoon for unnecessary reasons.
The French government has indicated to the Dutch Government,and by extension the St. Maarten government, exactly what portion of the Oyster Pond Lagoon they claim is their territory. So, we can at least start to clean up the rest while we discuss the disputed part. In my opinion, such a compromise cannot be too farfetched the MP stated. This will show that we truly care about the environment and that we are willing to do more than just talk about it MP Buncamper concluded.
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