Aruban Government Tackling the Big Issues … The Proliferation of Palapas … Toleration of an Issue Until its an Issue …

The Aruban rule of look the other way government and if we look away hard enough, maybe it will just go away and disappear.

The Aruban Government is finally getting serious and taking on the big issues that plague its citizens and tourists. Is it public safety and the increased crime rate? Is it drug trade and money laundering? Is it the increasing inflation, taxes and the bbo? Is it the drug addition problem? Is it Aruba’s excessive government spending? Is it Aruba’s economic dependence on tourism? The answer is, no, no, no, no, no no, and no.

The Aruban government is tackling the hard biting issue of the proliferation of “Palapas” on its beaches. Way to take on the issue of the day that so greatly affects the Aruban people and tourists.

The proliferation of palapas has consequences for the beaches of Palm beach and Eagle Beach. A lot of structures have risen lately on Palm Beach in front of the hotels. Especially the number of palapas is growing on Eagle Beach. This is due to the many timeshare complexes that are being built on the other side of Irausquin Boulevard.

Maybe the real reason why the government is stepping in with regards to the proliferation of palapas is not because they are being built on public beaches, but instead the fact that there now appear to be more reed huts than actual tourists in Aruba.

One may ask why suddenly Aruba finds itself with a proliferation of “palapas” on public beaches. The reason is like everything that takes places there, it was tolerated and everyone looked the other way until the situation got out of control where it suddenly becomes a concern. It appears to be the MO in Aruba. Looks the other way until it becomes a glaring problem. Sound familiar?

The government is going to take on the palapas’ proliferation
(June 28, 2008 Amigoe)

ORANJESTAD – The number of palapas (reed covering-over) has increased so much in a short period of time that the government has decided to take measures, and so contain this ‘proliferation’. The government has established a committee for this. This committee must figure out where the public part of the beach intersects with the long-lease part of the hotels.

The proliferation of palapas has consequences for the beaches of Palm beach and Eagle Beach. A lot of structures have risen lately on Palm Beach in front of the hotels. Especially the number of palapas is growing on Eagle Beach. This is due to the many timeshare complexes that are being built on the other side of Irausquin Boulevard. Apart from palapas that continually are built bigger and more luxurious, the hotels have also placed showers, changing rooms, and bars on the beach. Some hotels on Palm- as well as Eagle Beach have built large outside bars on the beach, where romantic dinner is served on the beach.

It isn’t allowed to build anything on public beaches anyway, assured DOW that also knows that it happens for all that. An employee of DOW tried a few weeks ago to prevent a hotel from pouring asphalt on the beach for flooring. The police was notified when the hotel refused to stop with the work. But to the dissatisfaction of the DOW-employee, the police did nothing.

TOLERATION POLICY

Problem is that the government has until now tolerated the structures on the beach, says Marlon Croes, head of DOW’s policy supervision department. It is for that matter not clear where the long-lease grounds of most of the hotels run. “The beach is public. The government has tolerated in the past that hotels placed palapas on public beaches. But we noticed after awhile that new structures were built on the beach. This affects the quality of the beach. But it is also difficult for us to determine what is legal and what is illegal and what is built on long-lease property and what on public beach.”