Simon Waslander is the president of foundation CONPA and Aaron Bislip is the treasurer of foundation CONPA; together they have walked the path to protect our environment and also protect the Burumbundo Area. Yesterday afternoon, CONPA delivered an official view (zienswijze) to the DIP.
The president of foundation CONPA, Simon Waslander, launched strong criticism against the management surrounding the subdivision (verkaveling) plan in Pos Chiquito. In an official statement, he pointed out that the process is laden with so many concerns and irregularities that it does not comply with the necessary legal and administrative standards. It breaks the RLO and RROPV law and the general principles of proper administration (algemene beginselen van behoorlijk bestuur – ABB), which are the written and unwritten norms that governmental authorities must take into account when making decisions and executing their work. The goal of these principles is to protect the citizen against abuse of power and ensure that the government acts fairly, transparently, and coherently.
Lack of transparency and incomplete documentation
One of the most alarming points that Waslander brought forward is the state of the official documentation that was made available for inspection (inzage). According to his analysis, the delivered documents completely lack:
• Jung aanleiding (initial motivation)
• Motivation principle (motiveringsprincipe)
• The maps are without an author; one can say it is a project submitted to DIP with a phantom title, without an author.
This shortcoming leaves the entire process without a fair administrative basis, which opens the door to serious doubts about the legitimacy of the management.
From a technical and geological point of view, the president of CONPA remarks that the terrain at Pos Chiquito is not suited to carry this project. The heights, the corals, the gullies (gulido), and the entire structure of the area make the site totally incapable of development of this magnitude.
It is regretted that the government dares to send a plan of only 5 pages for a subdivision of that size, where they want to deal with 762 apartments and 242 residences, and not draw up a proper plan on the level of a plan of more than 5 pages—which says a lot about the plan and the desire for this project.
Economic, social, and traffic consequences also play a role in this project, where no investigation has been done into anything.
Traffic and congestion: This development will cause a serious traffic problem, which will affect the economy and the tourism sector. Verbally, foundation CONPA was informed that the planning department (planologie), which must give approval to such large projects via the DIP, was not kept informed.
Of this entire plan, nature is one point, economic problems and legal issues are another point, but the moment we talk about security and emergency services (hulpdiensten), they are not kept informed. Practically, the 5-page plan without an author, practically a phantom owner, is not prepared to guarantee security and emergency services such as ambulances, police, fire department, etc., at that level.
Foundation COMPA keeps informing the community in its position that these types of decisions demand a deeper, transparent, and responsible analysis to protect the future of Aruba’s environment and infrastructure for ourselves and future generations.
