Waste: late payments and reduced collection services
It’s hard not to notice that, for the past few days, the island’s streets have been littered with rubbish. The cause is a delay in payment by the local authority to the contractors responsible for waste collection.
Household rubbish, bulky items and garden waste are strewn across the pavements everywhere. In a letter sent on 3 May to Prefect Cyrille Le Vély, Senator Annick Petrus described the situation as “particularly worrying”. “In an area exposed to extreme heat, the rapid proliferation of pests and already known structural weaknesses in terms of sanitation, this situation now poses a serious health risk to the population,” the senator stated. Indeed, beyond the immediate inconvenience for local residents, the suspension of this public service encourages the proliferation of disease-carrying animals such as rats and mosquitoes. At a time of year when the weather is getting increasingly hot, if the situation were to persist, it could have serious health consequences, particularly for the most vulnerable people.
Although they usually carry out daily rubbish collection on the island, the contractors are facing late payments from the Collectivité. This is an unacceptable situation for these private companies, which employ many people in Saint-Martin. To express their dissatisfaction, the companies have therefore decided to reduce the amount of waste collected. This slowdown is being felt everywhere, both literally and figuratively. Nevertheless, lorries continue to make their rounds along the RN7 and on some of the main roads, whilst in the most isolated areas rubbish continues to pile up.
Settling the debt
When contacted, the Collectivité described a situation unprecedented in the last twenty years and a debt that should soon be settled. This delay is reportedly due to an issue with invoice compliance. The slowdown affects all sectors of the island with the exception of household waste collection in Marigot. Bernadette Davis, the elected representative in charge of the living environment committee, indicated that a meeting with the Collectivité’s finance department and the various companies should be organised shortly to establish a procedure to follow and thus ensure that this situation does not recur. The payment orders were reportedly signed last week and the payments are now due to be made by the Treasury. The service providers hope to receive this payment quickly so they can resume their collection services. For its part, Verde SXM, the company operating the landfill site, is also facing a delay in payment. The debt currently stands at €1.2 million for the company responsible for processing all waste from the French part of the island. Furthermore, the Galisbay waste collection centre, managed by the Territorial Collectivity, has been closed since Wednesday 29 April and will remain so “until further notice for technical reasons”.
