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🚨 URGENT NOTICE: WATER SUPPLY DISRUPTION IN ST. MARTIN 🚨

To all our visitors currently enjoying the beautiful island of St. Martin French Side, we regret to inform you of an ongoing situation that affects both the local community and our cherished guests:

As of Tuesday, December 24th, a strike involving seven SAUR employees has led to a complete halt of water production and distribution on the french side.
This unfortunate action, happening during the busy holiday season, impacts residents and visitors alike.

Despite continuous efforts by local authorities, including President Louis Mussington and representatives of the Collectivity and CCISM, the issue remains unresolved at this time. Additionally, critical programming equipment required to restart production has reportedly gone missing, creating further delays.

What this means for you as a visitor:

- Prepare for limited or no access to tap water in your accommodations.

- Stock up on bottled water for drinking, cooking, and hygiene needs.

- Stay in touch with your host or property manager for the latest updates and solutions.

Really bad situation, the day before Christmas! I hope it gets resolved very soon.

I first came to the island about 30 yeas ago and thought I was in heaven. Been about 20 times since. And I don’t think I’ll be back. Between the illegal immigration , the crime, the traffic , the destruction of the natural beauty and most importantly the corruption of govt on both sides of the island the place has turned into a total cesspool.

And let’s not forget the water and electric. Again the govt.

So far we still have water at Bleu Emeraude in Grand Case.
My wife just hopped in the shower 🚿 when I mentioned reading this report.

Blue Emerald like Grand Cast Beach Club may have their own salinization for their own water supply.

So just got back from last swim and walk on the beach and the shower/feet washer on beach has no water. The shower in room still does so RonDon you might be correct on BE having some type of water supply for rooms.

Strike - Update

"Negotiations between the SAUR Regional Directorate and the UGTG union delegation that took place in Guadeloupe during the whole day of December 24th have been suspended until Thursday 26th, without overall progress.

The point regarding the Saint Martinos agents being the last on the list of demands, all local authorities have mobilized to exchange with the strikers with the willingness to not meet this deadline.

Mr. Prefect, Mr. President of the Collective, Mr. President EEASM, Mrs. President of CCISM have thus gone to the Galisbay strike picket to ask the strikers to return the production plant to work and to ensure minimum drinking water supply hospital, dialysis and EHPAD services. Others, such as the Member of Parliament, also took part in the remote discussions.

The majority of the strikers caused health and penal issues and opted for a partial commissioning of the production tool.

This one is limited to 135 m3/h and started yesterday at 20:30 (nominated production 330 m3/h). The stock constituted tonight has since this morning been exclusively directed to the Mont des Accords reservoir for a watering of the priority areas (Hospital Center, EHPAD) around noon today.

The entire SAUR group is appalled by the action conducted by the UGTG during this holiday season and will know how to draw conclusions regarding the seriousness of the facts.

Obviously, we remain mobilized this Christmas Day to try and turn things around. "

That's just awful.

We leave tomorrow for 10 weeks in Orient Bay so i hope it gets resolved. Our place has a backup but its not fresh water so we don't have to worry about toilet flushing but washing is a problem. On the bright side we have met some great people through the years as we filled buckets of water from the swimming pool.

The Prefect, the French federal representative in St Martin, just put out an update. Since most here don’t seem to speak/read French I ran it through Google Translate:

WATER SUPPLY DISRUPTIONS: SITUATION UPDATE at 10:30 AM.
A crisis meeting was held this morning at the prefecture to take stock of the water supply situation in Saint-Martin following the ongoing social movement at SAUR.
The gradual re-supply of Marigot is underway, and at this stage, half of the production is operational.
The prefect has asked SAUR to accelerate the acquisition of the missing parts needed to return to full production capacity as soon as possible.
The prefect strongly condemns hostile and dangerous courses of action that have led to the theft of parts vital to the operation of the plant, thus endangering the health and public safety of Saint-Martin and the people of Saint-Martin.
Pending a full recovery, a prefectural decree has been issued to limit non-essential uses of water. In addition, a water supply ramp is made available to users in Galisbay to meet urgent needs.
A press briefing will be held today at 3 p.m. to inform the population of the development of the situation.

I really hope they get it resolved. Terrible situation to happen, especially this week. I wonder what the restaurants in Grand Case and Orient Bay are doing??

I would question the sanitation at any establishment without clean running water.

"Voluntary interruption of drinking water production in Saint-Martin: an unacceptable hostage of the population and the tourist economy

The SAUR Group strongly condemns the voluntary interruption of drinking water production on the island of Saint-Martin, which occurred on December 23, 2024 This action was carried out by seven SAUR Saint-Martin agents following instructions from UGTG Guadeloupe, resulting in the shutting down of the island's only water production plant. The gesture was accompanied by the illegal removal of essential boxes when the installation was restarted, putting the entire population in a situation of health, humanitarian and economic emergency.

Although pedestrian access to the Galisbay site was possible on December 23, the strikers proceeded the next day to complete and reinforced closure of the site, preventing any attempts to restart the water production plant. This action was carried out in total disregard for non-strike workers and the Collectivity, owner of the site.

The stopping of the production of drinking water on an island where daily issues are already pregnant, at the peak of tourism, on the eve of Christmas, and in disregard of all efforts made in the previous months to stabilize the water situation on the territory, resurrects purely and simply terrorism; no other word could describe such a hostage-taking of an entire population and visitors, under the pretext of being treated by lawyers since May in order to respond to the arbitrary problems of individuals in Guadeloupe.

These facts are criminal, criminal offenses and will be treated as such!

This action against the spirit of Christmas, orchestrated by a minority, endangers not only equipment, public health, the integrity of sensitive people, but also the island’s economic survival.

Access to clean water is a fundamental, inviolable and sacred right. It is also our duty, our mission, the very meaning of our daily commitment.

It is therefore with great sadness and a deep shame that we, on behalf of the SAUR Group, send our apologies to all Saint-Martinois, visitors, local social professionals and the competent authorities for this unfortunate situation.

My thanks go out to the local teams that I know particularly affected and impacted by the behavior of their colleagues and who remain mobilized around their missions, today being abused and battered. They remain fully engaged despite the obstacles and continue to mobilize to ensure a return to normal as soon as possible.

The entire SAUR Group is actively working on the implementation of palliative solutions in a very short time frame, in order to restore the supply of drinking water for the entire population of the island.

We thank all residents and professionals for their patience, understanding and life-saving resilience at this particularly difficult time.


Vincent PEGOUD
Assistant General Manager "

What a terrible situation for those who are arriving and who live in the affected areas. We are grateful that we still had water this morning before we left. At SXM now.

Safe travels.

Water is back I think since 11pm or so last night 12/26.

erb--is it fully restored? I was under the impression that it was only back like 2/3, whatever that means.

Herold article.LINK

Probably not 100%, was able to do laundry/dishwasher and 2 short cold showers.

This morning’s Press Release from the Prefect. Many here don’t seem to speak French, so I translated it with Google Translate.

PRESS RELEASE - Water supply restored in Saint-Martin

During the night of December 26 to 27, the entire population of Saint-Martin was re-supplied with drinking water by SAUR.
In order to avoid cuts due to a still low flow, a prefectural decree was issued to limit non-essential uses of water.
The water distribution situation remains fragile, the prefect is closely monitoring its development so that it can be secured and sustained as soon as possible.

Our water — Orient Baie — returned the evening of the 26th - around 2200.

Was quite the talk in the neighborhood.

If we want to understand behavior, we need look no further than the reward system.

A corollary is if one wants to change behavior, one must change the reward.

Will be interesting to see what, if anything changes in this domain.

Wish everyone good health, and success in 2025.

FYI

BTW, I really appreciate y’all keeping us informed during this extraordinary situation. THANK YOU !