TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Water restrictions on French side

𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐡 𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐮𝐬𝐞

"The Collectivité of St. Martin has issued a decree to temporarily ban the use of water for certain functions until further notice.

The decision was taken in consideration of the current drought as well as the weather and sea conditions impacting the production of water at Galisbay. These have led to difficulties recently in providing enough drinking water on daily for the population and the need to ensure sufficient stock for hygiene and public health.

Until further notice the watering of lawns, flowers, trees, shrubs and kitchen gardens is banned, as is the emptying and filling of swimming pools. Washing of cars is also banned except vehicles used for medical reasons, food transport and vehicles used for security.

These conditions will be adjusted or lifted according to stabilisation of water production. This order is executed under the authority of the Director General of Services (DGS), Chief of Territorial Police, and Chief of the Fire Brigade (Sapeurs Pompiers).

A temporary ban has also been issued on swimming and water sport activities at Galisbay Beach from March 21 until April 3 due to the opening of the channel."

(Source: Collectivité of St. Martin)

You know, it used to be that the only utility issues one needed to worry about on SXM was GEBE's service, or lack thereof. GEBE continues to do it's rather stinky job of providing electric "service", but now it seems like every time you turn around, there is a water outage on the French side. Haven't stayed on the French side in a few years, but before I stay over there again, I think I would inquire as to whether the property in question has a cistern or some other kind of back up water system. From what I understand (and I could definitely be wrong) the issue is that the water and sewer system has not kept up with the rapid growth of housing. Anyone have any fairly informed information about the topic?

I would never entertain or recommend anybody to stay on the French side. I question the hygiene of the Bars along Orient and elsewhere when water is shut off on the French side.

So, what does hygiene at the bars--at which you yourself eat all the time--have to do with staying on the French side??

Well asked lol.

Maybe a better word would have been sanitation at these beach bars when fresh water is turned off or not available for food preparers to wash hands. My post was a two part statement. One staying on the French side without reliable water and the other referencing the Beach bars without a proper means of washing hands during food prep.

I'm thinking the same...besides washing hands, what about washing dishes, utensils? I remember one year we were at a beach bar on Orient, no names mentioned here, but popular place!!..but no running water and they were bringing in buckets of sea water to wash dishes, glasses, etc....sinks backing up with sludge....ewwwwww....never ate there again!

I agree with SXMScubaman, when there's water shortage issues, people tend to cut corners and not use proper hygiene practices. I got Hepatitus A (no running water) from sewage contamination at a beach bar in Nevis (ST. Kitts). When we're spending a lot of money on a vacation, the last thing we want to worry about is getting fresh water. For that reason alone, we would never stay on the French side.

And I say again--sanitation at beach bars is a totally DIFFERENT question than staying on the French side. Just a question--does Rosie's have running potable water???

Just curious - where does the drinking/washing water come from on either side of the island? Is there a de-salination plant? Or any type of underground source? Or rainwater collection?

Water on both sides of the island comes from de-sal plants.

Where does it say the water is being shut off? There are restrictions on what may be looked at as non essential use. Happens in many places when hot and drought conditions. If not mistaken happened recently in California.

luvtotravel--this particular note has to do with water restrictions. However, there have been NUMEROUS reports in recent months of water outages for several hours, possibly up to a day or more, of water outages, particularly in the Orient area.

We are presently staying on the French side above Grand Case and having a fabulous time. So far my personal hygiene has been quite acceptable lol!!

Not worried about yours. 😁 Workers in the food service could be questionable.🤞

We recently returned from three weeks on the island, all of which time we were residing on the French side, at Orient to be exact. We experienced a number of evenings and some daytime hours without running water. There were two reasons. First, there was water line construction work underway from about the Hope Estate area south to about where the Price Leader store is located. They were actively working there most nights and traffic had been diverted to a poorly marked "deviation." If that weren't frustrating enough, during that time one of the three pumps at the French desalination plant broke down and that disrupted the water supply for over a day or so until repairs were made.

It should be noted that back here in the States, there are many communities that have or are experiencing the exact same problems, stemming from a lack of sufficient investment in the infrastructure. Just think of all the water going to waste in California now due to inadequate retention and storage facilities. I have no idea how many privately-owned cisterns there are on the island, but for sure they contribute little to the overall supply of potable water. Meanwhile, drought or no drought, there is no significant effort at all on either side of the island to collect and store storm water as a reserve or to supplement sweetened seawater. Neither side has enough extra capacity to help the other much during times when service is under stress.

Several years ago we stayed at a fancy resort on Guadeloupe. The water was shut off there for several hours every day. The hotel told us to fill our bathtub before we went out every morning and they brought several bottles of water to our room each day. This is not something I care to repeat. We have not been back to Guadeloupe since.

AMEN🙌👏❤️