Over the past 24 months, the Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure (VROMI) has obtained several pieces of heavy equipment machinery, all of which helps to improve the daily management of the country’s landfill.

The machinery, procured through the St. Maarten Trust Fund under the Emergency Debris Management Project (EDMP), includes a front-end loader, a bulldozer, an alternative daily cover (ADC) silo and applicator and, most recently, a new solid waste compactor worth US $740,000.

With the country’s current financial constraints, the purchase and delivery of this equipment provides cost saving to the Government of Sint Maarten, as it replaces the machinery that the VROMI Ministry was previously renting from third parties. The total value of all the ADC and landfill management equipment is approximately US $2.1 million. The Trust Fund will also fund preventative maintenance for all the purchased and delivered heavy machinery until the end of the EDMP project.

“I am very pleased with the delivery of the compactor, which is an addition to the other pieces of heavy machinery already procured for the country’s landfill under the EDMP,” said National Recovery Program Bureau (NRPB) Director Claret Connor. “One of the project’s main objectives is to improve the management of our solid waste disposal sites and facilitate sustainable waste management solutions for Sint Maarten. This equipment is another step towards realizing this goal.”

“Management of the landfill is an essential task of the Ministry and I’m pleased to have received the necessary Solid Waste Compactor and other procured materials that contributes to the management and support of the EDMP project,” said VROMI Minister Egbert Doran.

With the purchase and delivery of the new solid waste compactor, all the requested heavy machinery included under the Landfill Improvement component of EDMP has been transferred to Pond Island. A handover ceremony for the new compactor took place on Friday, July 23, 2021.

The heavy machinery came in two types. The first related to ADC, which is a material used to cover solid waste to reduce odor, extinguish existing fires and minimize the chance of new blazes, and control vectors for disease, such as flies, birds, and rodents.

Through the Trust Fund, the Government of Sint Maarten received the ADC materials and a silo to store them safely and efficiently, as well as a large and small applicator to spread ADC on solid waste and a pick-up truck to move the applicators around the landfill.

The second type of machinery related to general landfill management, and included a front-end loader, a bulldozer, and the recently delivered compactor.

Additionally, personnel of the Ministry of VROMI received training as part of the EMDP. In August 2019, LSC Environmental Products — the contractor of the ACD material and machinery – conducted trainings on ADC application and the specialized equipment’s operation and maintenance. In June 2021, RIMCO provided a similar training for the compactor, bulldozer, and front-end loader.

The EDMP is a project under the Sint Maarten Trust Fund, which is financed by the Netherlands, managed by the World Bank, and implemented by the National Recovery Program Bureau (NRPB).