PHILIPSBURG–The Anti-Poverty Platform said on Thursday that Prime Minister Leona Romeo-Marlin failed to address pressing issues affecting the community in her New Year’s address.
“We have listened to the National New Year’s Address of Prime Minister Leona Romeo-Marlin with the hope to hear what the government in St. Maarten will do to improve the wellbeing of the more than 13,000 poor and needy households in St. Maarten [but there was – Ed.] no word about how the government is going to bring down the prices of food which are the highest in the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the highest in our region.
“No word about how the government is going to bring down the fuel clause on our GEBE electricity bills [and] no word about drinking water supply at different locations for the people as was the case after the hurricane, which helped many households to save money and pay a lower water bill,” the platform said at a press conference on Thursday.
“The Prime Minister spoke about the new hospital to be constructed to withstand a category five-plus hurricane with a 25 million grant from the Dutch government through the trust fund managed by the World Bank, but no word about how many roofs or how many homes this government will build back better and stronger this year, whereas in their roadmap to build back better and stronger [the National Recovery and Resilience Plan] they mentioned more than 13,000 homes that have to be built back better and stronger,” the platform said.
According to the platform, while there are more than 10,000 workers who need money to supplement their “poverty wages” to make the ends meet every month, only 1,800 workers will benefit from an income project to improve their skills funded with money from the trust fund.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/84202-anti-poverty-platform-pm-failed-to-address-pressing-issues-in-speech
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