PHILIPSBURG — Sint Maarten needs $2.3 billion for the next seven years to overcome the impact of Hurricane Irma. This estimate was already published last summer in the country’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), but it has now been adopted in the first interim report of the Sint Maarten Recovery, Reconstruction and Resilience Trust Fund. While the World Bank trust fund has made an initial $35 million available to solve the problems at the landfill on Pond Island, the NRRP estimates that it actually requires $190.9 million – 8.23 percent of the estimated damages of $2.3 billion.
Per November 2018, the Trust fund had received $305.7 million into the trust fund from the Netherlands. The investment income from this capital is listed as $1.8 million, the World Bank’s administration fee as $3 million. For operational activities the trust fund disbursed $20.3 million and for non-operational activities $760,871.
From the allocated budget of $110.2 million (between April and November 2018) the trust fund disbursed $21 million – $10.5 million for emergency recovery, $492,174 for hospital resilience and $6.7 million for income support and training. Advisory services and analytics ($646,094), preparation, implementation and support ($1.8 million) and program management and administration ($760,871) slurped up another $2.4 million.
The majority of the allocated budget mentioned above ($102.7 million) is earmarked for emergency recovery ($55.2 million), hospital resilience ($25 million) and emergency income support and training ($22.5 million).
Budget management and administration takes a bit of $2.1 million out of the budget – a mere 1.9 percent. The budget for preparation, implementation and support is $4.1 million (3.8 percent) and that for advisory services and analytics $1.2 million (1.2 percent).
The NRRP estimates that it needs 22.8 percent of the $2.3 billion for housing ($524.4 million), $437 million (19 percent) for tourism and commerce, $216.2 million (9.4 percent) for governance and public financial administration, $190.9 million (8.3 percent) for solid waste management and sanitation, $174.8 million (7.6 percent) for airport investments and $117.3 million (5.1 percent) for education, youth and culture.
