Lack of vision
Water problems continue to plague the Dutch side, with various areas affected over the weekend. They could not have come at a worse time, with the high tourism season having kicked off Saturday and resorts reporting high occupancy figures, increasing the demand for water when the supply is already insufficient.
Whatever reason has been and is being given, it’s simply not good enough. Government has a responsibility to provide the island with an adequate supply of running water. That same government controls building permits and should know how many units are being added and what that means for the demand for water.
It must be said that efforts are being made to alleviate the problem by purchasing water from the French side, the Aqua Design plant was kept going pending the start-up of the new Air-Fin plant scheduled for the end of the month, and there are even plans to keep the Aqua Design plant going after that to provide extra capacity. But that still means residents and visitors flooding the island may have to deal with dry taps during the holidays.
This is not acceptable, because government is expected to guide the development of the island and make sure basic necessities such as water and electricity are sufficiently available to carry that development. The apparent lack of such planning – or at least timely planning – appears to be the main reason people are being inconvenienced.
Governing is supposed to be looking ahead. In this case clearly such vision was lacking.
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