Aruba’s environmental lawsuits cluster around two long-running fights: a beachfront resort’s twenty-year battle with the government over the failing Bubali sewage plant, and residents’ legal campaign against the Parkietenbos landfill. A separate, broader effort would amend Aruba’s constitution to recognize the rights of nature, which would reshape the legal ground any future suit stands on.
The Bubali Sewage Plant Case
The longest-running environmental lawsuit on the island involves the Bubali wastewater treatment plant, known locally as the RWZI, and the odors and fly infestations it has sent across Eagle Beach for years. Amsterdam Manor Beach Resort and its restaurant Passions On the Beach have filed more than ten lawsuits against the government of Aruba over the plant’s chronic failures.
The dispute dates to at least 2002, when the resort and the government reached a settlement in which the government agreed to combat the nuisance. A second settlement followed in 2007, covering odor elimination and the introduction of a sewerage tax. Neither held. The plant was built more than fifty years ago with a design capacity of roughly 4,500 cubic meters of wastewater per day. It now handles about 9,000 cubic meters daily as tourism-driven development has outpaced the island’s infrastructure.
On December 13, 2023, the Court of First Instance of Aruba ruled that the government had acted unlawfully toward Amsterdam Manor since 2002 by failing to maintain the plant or provide sufficient treatment capacity. The court held the government liable for damages going back more than two decades, with the amount to be set in a separate proceeding. By then, the government had already paid 710,000 Aruban florins in court-imposed penalties for failing to comply with earlier orders.1Rechtspraak.nl. ECLI:NL:OGEAA:2024:118
Court Orders and Penalties
Successive orders have grown more specific as compliance has lagged. A November 2022 ruling required the government to install new aerators and overhaul existing brush aerators within 120 days, backed by penalties of 10,000 florins per day up to 250,000 florins per requirement. A December 2023 injunction added a monthly penalty of roughly 170,585 florins for the government’s failure to order necessary bio-augmentation treatments.1Rechtspraak.nl. ECLI:NL:OGEAA:2024:118
In May 2024, the court ordered a sweeping set of emergency measures. The government had to keep five aerators and six brush aerators running, maintain three settling tanks, remove sludge daily, eliminate foam within 24 hours, and conduct daily water sampling. The ruling also mandated mobile treatment units to bring total capacity to at least 12,000 cubic meters per day until a new plant becomes operational.2Bati Bleki. Court Document on RWZI Emergency Measures
Privatization and the Fight That Continued
In May 2024, Aruba’s Parliament approved legislation to transfer the Bubali plant and two other sewage facilities to a new entity called Aruba Wastewater Sustainable Solutions NV, or AWSS.3Gobierno.aw. Parliament of Aruba Approves RWZI Privatization The transfer took effect on July 1, 2024. To fund the overhaul, Parliament authorized a sustainability fee of 35.80 Aruban florins (about $20 USD) on arriving air passengers.4HBN Law & Tax. Aruba Introduction of a Sustainability Fee
The Advisory Council (Raad van Advies) had issued a 127-page report criticizing the legislation before passage, calling the bill “badly written” and questioning whether the visitor fee was necessary at all. The council argued the government should first establish environmental and sustainability standards before collecting money “to protect what is not yet defined.”5Bati Bleki. We’re Talking About RWZI Again Parliament approved the law anyway.
Privatization has not ended the dispute. According to Bati Bleki, AWSS unilaterally stopped bio-augmentation treatment in December 2024, and the odor and environmental problems returned. The court has twice called for mediation between AWSS and the resort, but AWSS has refused to participate. AWSS has also declined to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment for the planned new plant, despite a recommendation from its own engineering consultant.6Bati Bleki. The Stench Persists Amsterdam Manor is now pushing for a court-ordered deadline of July 1, 2027, for a replacement facility, and for enforceable odor standards to be written into the legislation governing AWSS.2Bati Bleki. Court Document on RWZI Emergency Measures
The Parkietenbos Landfill Litigation
Aruba’s main landfill at Parkietenbos has drawn a separate line of lawsuits and advocacy. The dump has operated since the 1960s, and a 1996 study found the site contaminated with heavy metals and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).7Dutch Caribbean Legal Portal. Aruba Residents Take Action Against Landfill Residents of nearby neighborhoods have long attributed elevated rates of asthma and cancer to the dump’s fumes, and successive government plans to close and remediate the site have been abandoned over cost.
In 2017, the Parkietenbos Foundation issued an ultimatum to Prime Minister Mike Eman demanding a serious remediation plan within one week, threatening to report the situation to international organizations and the Dutch government as a violation of residents’ right to clean air.7Dutch Caribbean Legal Portal. Aruba Residents Take Action Against Landfill
In February 2020, resident Anouk Balentina brought an expedited court case over the nuisance from the dump. The judge gave the government three months to resolve the issue, specifically by getting the site’s incinerator operational so that medical waste and other materials would stop being burned in the open air. The deadline passed. The government blamed COVID-19 border closures for its inability to fly in a repair technician, though critics noted that authorities managed to bring in other specialists during the pandemic for different priorities.8Caribbean Network. Aruban Government Ignores Agreement With Judge, Extra Fear for Nuisance From Dump Health research promised to area residents after a critical report by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) was never conducted.
A later ruling in August 2022 ordered that the dump either be closed or legalized by January 2023. When waste company Serlimar posted a closure sign in January 2023 but operations continued, Balentina petitioned the Public Prosecutor’s Office to enforce the ruling. Receiving no response, she announced plans to return to court. The government then opened a 30-day public comment period in March 2023 for a new nuisance permit for the site. Balentina argued this was an attempt to retroactively legalize operations that violate Aruba’s Spatial Development Plan, which she contends explicitly prohibits waste processing at Parkietenbos.9Bondia. Anouk Balentina: ROPV Prohibits Waste Processing at Parkietenbos
As of March 2026, residents near the dump continue to demand a shutdown of incineration, health screenings, and a full cleanup. They report that toxic emissions including mercury and heavy metals contaminate the air, soil, and sea, and that children in the area suffer from respiratory illnesses and neurological damage. Their appeals, directed publicly through social media and to the Dutch Royal Household, have so far not produced a resolution.10Antilliaans Dagblad. Gezondheidscrisis in Parkietenbos Aruba
A Rights of Nature Amendment That Could Change Future Cases
Running alongside these individual disputes is an effort to rewrite the legal ground entirely. Minister of Nature Ursell Arends, a member of the left-leaning RAIZ party, submitted a draft constitutional amendment in April 2023 that would enshrine two new rights: the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, and the right of nature itself to the “protection, conservation and restoration of its ecosystems and biodiversity.”11Ecojurisprudence.org. Aruba Constitutional Amendment Recognizing the Rights of Nature If adopted, Aruba would become the second country in the world after Ecuador to constitutionally recognize the rights of nature, and this would be the first amendment to Aruba’s constitution since it took effect in 1986.12ConstitutionNet. Aruba Minister of Nature Initiates Constitutional Amendment to Enshrine Rights of Nature and Human Right to Clean Environment
The initiative has roots in the RAIZ party platform from 2017 and was folded into the 2021 coalition government’s agenda. Arends developed the draft in collaboration with the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and the U.S.-based Earth Law Center.13Yahoo News. Constitutional Amendment Draft Could Make History The accompanying memorandum argues that individual species protections are insufficient and that “protection at the system level is necessary” to account for how species and their environments interact. Arends has also cited the island’s economic dependence on tourism as a practical reason to codify environmental protections.
The amendment underwent a public consultation period from March to April 2024.11Ecojurisprudence.org. Aruba Constitutional Amendment Recognizing the Rights of Nature For adoption, it must receive approval from at least two-thirds of Aruba’s 21-member Parliament and then be signed off by the government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Arends initially expected the domestic process to conclude by the end of 2023, a timeline that has clearly slipped. The available record does not confirm whether the amendment has advanced beyond consultation.
Why Winning in Court Has Not Fixed the Problem
Aruba’s existing environmental framework has been described as “conventional regulatory laws.” Aruban environmental lawyer Geert Rep has used these statutes to win 15 court cases against developers since 2016, though Rep has noted that governmental decision-making continues to prioritize short-term economic interests over environmental protection.14Inside Climate News. Aruba Rights of Nature The proposed constitutional amendment would, if enacted, place environmental protection above ordinary legislation and set a higher legal standard for government decisions affecting the natural environment.
The pattern across Aruba’s environmental cases is consistent. Plaintiffs win. Courts order remedies. Penalties accrue. Deadlines pass. The Bubali resort has a liability finding stretching back to 2002 and hundreds of thousands of florins in penalties on the books, but still no reliably working plant. Parkietenbos residents hold court orders to close or legalize the dump, but the dump operates on. Whether a rights of nature amendment would close that enforcement gap, or simply add a new layer of orders for the government to miss, is the open question behind every active suit.