ST. EUSTATIUS–The Dutch government intends to assign a maximum of 19 million euros to the public entity St. Eustatius to stabilise the cliff on the harbour side of the island.

This was stated in the Spring Memorandum (“Voorjaarsnota”), which was recently presented to the Dutch Parliament’s Second Chamber for discussion and approval.

The central government had already financially assisted the public entity when reinforcing the cliff under Fort Oranje. However, further research showed that measures were needed on a much larger part of the cliff along Oranje Bay.

The public entity is responsible for cliff maintenance, but due to the scale of the project, also from a financial perspective, officially requested help from the central government at the beginning of this year.

The Ministry of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations is prepared to support Statia in this matter. To ensure that these and previously implemented measures have a long-term effect, additional measures are needed to make the project more sustainable. This particularly concerns the removal of free-roaming cattle and the introduction of a maintenance plan, which is needed to prevent future problems.

State Secretary of Kingdom Relations and Digitisation Alexandra van Huffelen has informed St. Eustatius’ Executive Council by letter that she will make agreements about these measures before the funds are actually granted.

Bron: Daily Herald