~ Admits that St. Maarten does have a sewage problem to deal with.~
PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of VROMI Egbert Doran in a statement to the media on Wednesday said that he does not allow anyone within the Ministry of VROMI to use the Ministry to campaign for political purposes. As such he called out the social media outlet who recently used a family situation at the Emergency homes in Dutch Quarter for such purposes.
Doran said that when it came to his attention that the home was flooded with sewage, he contacted the St. Maarten Housing Development Foundation (SMHDF) and asked them to investigate and rectify the problem.
The Minister further explained that SMHDF informed him that one of their employees acted as a rogue and filled in a road that is causing problems in the area. He further explained that he was told that there is a high possibility that the main pipe has been blocked with foreign materials which could have led to the blockage.
SMN News asked the Minister if he would agree that St. Maarten does have a sewage problem on its hands to which the Minister agreed. He said that many people would wait until the rainfall to open their sewage pit and allow the sewage water to run on the public roadways.
Doran said that there are cases where people would request a building permit for a two or three-bedroom home and they would then construct either two or three apartments with two or three bedrooms with the same size of sewage pit which results in overflow. The Minister said that the government has allocated NAF15M to address the issues with the waste water.
