[ISL] "'Ash to cash': Montserrat gambles future on the volcano that nearly destroyed it"

[rfmcdonald]

Writing for The Guardian, Ryan Schuessler examines how the Caribbean island of Montserrat is trying to capitalize on its excessive volcanism.

It’s still a grim sight, but 20 years after the first eruption, Montserratians are beginning to reconsider Soufrière Hills. The nation’s government, elected at the end of 2014, is now betting the country’s future, in part, on the very volcano that almost destroyed it. The eruption is the past, they argue; geothermal energy, sand mining and tourism are the future.

“We have learned to live with the volcano,” said the island’s premier, Donaldson Romeo. The “long, hopeless period” that began with the eruptions is over. “Ash to cash,” he said with a grin.

“Before the volcano, we were standing on our own two feet,” Romeo added. “Here we are 20 years later, with lots of money spent, but we don’t have the programs that will assist us in achieving [self-sufficiency].”

The majority of Montserrat’s annual budget comes from the United Kingdom: since the crisis, British taxpayers have invested more than £400m in aid to the island. A new airport and housing for displaced residents are among the improvements made possible through those funds.

But “ash to cash” has been slow to materialize. Talk of geothermal development, like many projects on the island, has been going on for more than a decade amid concerns, both in Montserrat and the UK, of local mismanagement of aid money.

Yet Romeo says the island is poised to finally spring forward with a refreshed relationship with London.

“British taxpayers’ money will now be spent in the way where the people of Montserrat will be developed, and the infrastructure will be developed,” he said. “We are actually in a place to fix several hundred years of history.”