PHILIPSBURG:--- Member of Parliament Omar Ottley delivered a sharp warning to Minister of VROMI Patrice Gumbs during Parliament’s discussion on waste and wastewater management, urging him to accept assistance in addressing sanitation problems and declaring that pride should never stand in the way of solutions.
Ottley offered to help develop policy changes to improve garbage collection and wastewater enforcement. However, he questioned whether government would give proposals meaningful attention.
“If you cannot figure it out, then ask for the help,” Ottley said. “And if you are too proud to ask for the help, and your pride won’t allow you, then it’s time to vacate the seat.”
He urged Gumbs to seek assistance before reaching that point, saying he refused to believe the minister had taken office without the country’s interests at heart.
Ottley’s intervention followed questions from other MPs about wastewater treatment plant operations, uncollected garbage, apartment collection rules and enforcement against pollution.
He criticized what he described as the minister’s dismissive response to concerns about circulating videos, asking whether Gumbs acknowledged the extent of the problems.
Earlier in the meeting, Gumbs said the request for the discussion had not made sufficiently clear which information had reached the requesting MPs. He nevertheless updated the committee on waste collection tenders and the ministry’s management of the wastewater treatment plant.
Ottley argued that the visible conditions demanded a more direct response.
“The country is suffering,” he said. “The place looks deplorable.”
He specifically cited videos from Simpson Bay and Kim Sha, describing the conditions shown as “atrocious.” He also raised concerns about garbage in Cay Bay and Cole Bay.
According to Ottley, private citizens and patrons had stepped in to remove garbage from one affected area. He questioned why collection responsibilities remained unresolved while waste accumulated.
His remarks addressed the distinction between commercial and residential waste, an issue MPs Veronica Jansen-Webster and Ardwell Irion raised earlier.
Ottley said some locations had customarily received collection from previous haulers. He suggested a replacement contractor might now decline to collect waste considered commercial because that service falls outside the work it is paid for.
He acknowledged that a hauler could be acting within its contractual rights, but insisted that government still had to resolve the resulting sanitation problem.
“But then where does the buck stop?” he asked.
Ottley called for waste planning to account for tourism-driven demands alongside residents'. He argued that visitor activity adds substantially to the volume of garbage requiring collection and disposal.
On wastewater, Ottley asked whether an interministerial task force he established while Minister of VSA remained operational.
He said the initiative involved VSA, VROMI and Justice, with discussions also involving the National Recovery Program Bureau. According to Ottley, the work included efforts to establish mechanisms to issue and collect fines.
“Is that task force still operational?” he asked, requesting confirmation that the ministries were still communicating about wastewater problems.
The question reinforced MP Darryl York's concerns about whether inspector training would translate into effective enforcement and whether changes were needed to enable administrative fines.
Ottley said he was prepared to assist Gumbs with a policy proposal or amendment, but wanted assurance that the work would be considered.
He referred to previous regulatory proposals he said he had submitted to ministers, expressing frustration that initiatives could be left unattended following changes in office.
For Ottley, repeated parliamentary complaints reflected unresolved problems.
“A broken record means that something is wrong,” he said, arguing that MPs would not need to keep returning to the same issues if corrective action had been taken.
He closed by renewing his offer to help develop changes aimed at a cleaner and safer Sint Maarten, while making clear that he considered the current response inadequate.
The supplied exchange did not include Gumbs’ answers to Ottley’s questions or his response to the offer of assistance.