The Public Entity St. Eustatius has completed the first of two large retention ponds with the objective to minimize erosion on the island and consequently increase the water capacity for commercial and domestic uses. Within the Wederopbouw St. Eustatius (Rebuilding St. Eustatius) envelop special provisions were made to tackle the erosion situation near the cliffs of airport runway. To achieve these goals two retention ponds are being built near STUCO Solar Park and near the Airport runway. Construction on the first pond started in June 2019 and was completed during the first week of August. Work has already started on the second pond, commonly known as catchments.
The work comprises the construction of 2 retention ponds, of which the first – the northern retention pond – started on June 10th 2019 and was completed August 11th 2019. The scope of work consisted of; earth work, the excavation and profiling of the basin or pond, installation of Geotextile underlayment cloth; installation of and anchoring of the Polypropylene liner panel. Fencing of the area, to prevent unwanted and easy access to the pond, will also take place. The dimension of the first retention pond is 23 meters wide and 45 meter long with an overall depth of 5 meters, covering a surface area of approximate 1035 square meters. The capacity of the pond is approximate 3100 cubic meters.
This project, located in the Eastern side of the island in the vicinity of STUCO Solar Park, was specially designed to collect run off water from the STUCO solar panels. The collected water will be primarily reserved for agricultural and animal husbandry purposes. The retention ponds will significantly increase the island’s water capacity mitigating the ongoing dilemma of relatively high water cost, water availability and access for local farmers and livestock owners. In addition these ponds will also be used as a water
source for the St. Eustatius National Parks (STENAPA) reforestation project which is already in execution.
This project, managed by the Directorate of Economy and Infrastructure, is
collaboration between the Public Entity of St. Eustatius and the Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations and is being carried out by a local contractor.
