Meanwhile, the public watches as personal pleasure and vanity projects receive all the priority and funding from the Government of Aruba. Laws that are not deemed a priority—the legal foundation to protect our lives, water, land, and air—are deliberately forgotten in a closet.
There is a structural backlog in our environmental legislation. The reality is painful: Aruba receives a structural amount of 20 dollars from each tourist visiting our island, but so far, nothing is properly organized, implemented, or invested in the projects that these laws are actually meant to support. In addition, parliament is sleeping and is not working on laws for Aruba, but rather on laws that perhaps serve goals that do not benefit Aruba.
There is a lack of vision and structure from the current rulers. There is a clear list of fundamental draft laws that have been sleeping for years without Parliament or Government making any effort to implement them:
- Wet milieubeheer (Environmental Management Act): waiting in a drawer since 2012.
- Waterwet (Water Act): waiting in a drawer since 2017.
- Afvalverordening (Waste Ordinance): waiting in a drawer since 2019.
- MER-verordening (Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance): waiting in a drawer since 2019.
Despite these laws being in the drafting phase for years, politicians choose to focus on planting trees for propaganda or on matters that provide “good optics” politically, without resolving the root issues. “A minister can plant a tree and give hope with that. But that same minister has the obligation to ensure there are laws that prevent our ecosystem from continuing to disappear.”
Tourist money comes in, but where does it go?
The imbalance in the current management is obvious. While there is a secured financial income through the funds collected from tourists upon arrival, structural investments are not being directed to the most critical areas. Coasts like Mangel Halto, Baby Beach, and the western part of Aruba are under enormous pressure due to boat traffic, destructive recreational use, the serious problem of wastewater (afvalwater), and very weak enforcement or handhaving.
However, instead of focusing on creating structural standards for water, land, and air quality, the government’s focus remains on personal pleasure projects and partisan interests, leaving the main laws as mere formal paper in an old drawer. The priorities of the AVP-FUTURO Government are fatal.
A call for legality, not propaganda
It was emphasized that if these laws are not passed by Parliament in the coming years, this can no longer be called a simple structural delay, but rather a direct form of governmental negligence (bestuurlijke nalatigheid) against Aruba’s nature and future generations. Environmental protection is not a favor, but a fundamental human right tied to the ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights).
Aruba does not need more beautiful promises or vanity projects to satisfy personal interests. The people and nature need a structured legal foundation, proper enforcement, and the implementation of the laws that have been hidden in the closets of political decision-making for more than a decade.