From our correspondent
Kralendijk – Lieutenant Governor Edison Rijna recently received the report of dike warden Hein Pieper on integrated water management on Bonaire. After the heavy rainfall and flooding in November last year, the lieutenant governor of the Rijn & IJssel Water Board asked for support and knowledge exchange.
At the beginning of 2023, a delegation from various water boards came to Bonaire to take a look. Together with employees of the Department of Space & Development (R&O) of the Public Entity Bonaire (OLB), they spent a week looking at the water infrastructure of the island and talking to many stakeholders to get an initial picture of the situation. According to the government, the report provides a thorough summary of measures that can and must be taken in the short term to achieve a sustainable and integrated water management on the island. In addition, it deals with the medium and long term.
“The approach is not just about dredging the grubbing up or increasing the collection capacity of basins. We need to approach this comprehensively. From the OLB we are now offering the report to various ministries in the Netherlands to draw attention to this and we will continue discussions with them in the coming period. In addition, we will use this report at the UN water conference in New York at the end of March,” says Rijna.
According to Deputy James Kroon, the report provides very practical advice that immediately helps to tackle a number of bottlenecks in water management. “We can’t afford another mudslide like that at Harbor Village. But now the necessary resources. Our population has grown enormously in recent years and that requires major investments in our infrastructure, including eliminating overdue maintenance and building affordable homes,” says Kroon, who says he is optimistic that a solution will be found in close consultation with The Hague. become.
