Please allow us some space in your well read publication to respond to Mr. Kurt Ruan's of the Department of New works most recent, perhaps purposefully inaccurate and misleading, statements on the Ring-road project.
Having analyzed the flooding St. Maarten experienced in early October as a result of the tropical depression which later became hurricane Otto (not Earl as stated in Thursday's article) St. Maarten Pride Foundation maintains its position that the filling-in of the Great Salt Pond, for the construction of the Ring-road project, significantly contributed to the extent of flooding in the Greater Great Bay area.
The often improperly carried out excavation of St. Maarten's hillsides, removal of vegetation, top soil etc. for the building of roads and houses has lead to erosion and reduced the water retention capacity of these hillsides, placing an increased burden on lower areas. Consequently the influx of rainwater and soil into the Fresh Pond and the Great Salt Pond over the past few years has increased at a rapid rate. The aforementioned combined with poor drainage infrastructure and the filling-in of the area's main catchment basin the Great Salt Pond over the past decades, most recently for the construction of the Ring-road project, played an important role in October's flooding of the Greater Great Bay area.
The flooding was made worse by the Public Works department's mismanagement of the Great Salt Pond's water level and the incursion of soil from the surrounding hills which has decreased the pond's depth thereby reducing its water retention capacity.
Anyone that experienced or saw pictures of the flooding can easily determine that Mr. Ruan's claims that"the areas around the pond that had not been filled-in to facilitate the ring road had been flooded more than the areas that had been filled in" are far from the truth. The Ring-road's influence on the extent of flooding was evident from early-on during the first day of rain when water which had accumulated on the Walter Nisbeth Road (Pondfill) and adjacent parking lots could not flow into the Great Salt Pond as the Ring-road formed a barrier, thereby trapping the water and flooding both the parking lots and the street.
The heavy sea surge which according to Mr. Ruan "pushed water inland" is a consequence of the dredging of some 400.000m³ of sand from Great Bay for the harbor extension project. These dredging activities have completely changed the way waves come into and break in Great Bay. The bottom of the Great Salt Pond is roughly 1 meter and 30 centimeters lower than the average Great Bay sea-level, this combined with the fact that the water-level in the Pond is also lower than the sea-level causes a strong underground discharge of water from the Sea into the Pond. The abovementioned dredging combined with ill-planned construction activities and sheet-piling (for the boardwalk and other projects) in Philipsburg has altered the natural dynamics of water-flow between the Pond and the Sea causing water to be displaced and contributing the flooding experienced in times of heavy swells or rains.
Mr. Ruan stated that "the sand had acted as a natural dam for the water from the Great Salt Pond" he carried-on to claim that "if the water in the pond is kept at a low yet appropriate level and if the pond is pumped a few days in advance of a storm, the Ring-road will be a benefit for Philipsburg". Quite a number of "ifs" and uncertainties. Mr. Ruan fails to realize that the Ring-road formed a man-made dam (not a natural dam as he continuously claims) for water from the surrounding areas which was flowing towards the Pond, resulting in the flooding of a number of streets. Perhaps Ruan should consider that there would have been substantially less flooding had the Pond's retention capacity not been diminished by sand for the Ring-road in the first place and if the appropriate mitigating measures had been implemented and properly managed beforehand.
St. Maarten Pride Foundation wonders how Government can even consider approving a multi-million dollar project such as the Ring-road without having commissioned any studies to determine whether or not the project is feasible and will have the desired effect of alleviating traffic.
The most significant factor in October's flooding of not only the Greater Great Bay area but many of St. Maarten's other districts is of course the amount of rain which fell, Government's mismanagement of the island's Natural resources including water-ways and catchment basins combined with the carrying-out of unnecessary projects such as the Ring-road only made matters worse.
St. Maarten Pride Foundation
