WILLEMSTAD - Any hope that the mass washing ashore of Sargassum seaweed that started in earnest several years ago was a freak occurrence may pretty much be abandoned. The natural phenomenon turned out to be persistent and effectively dealing with its consequences has proven difficult at best.

The invasive seaweed not only clogs up inlets and beaches, but live organisms caught in it die and start to rot, creating an unbearable and potentially hazardous stench. Collecting and transporting the stuff even with heavy equipment is therefore often a less pleasant and in extreme cases unhealthy job.

It also solves only part of the issue. The grassy substance can be turned into fertilizer, but its air-polluting nature makes storage a huge challenge.

In Curaçao they started a project at particularly-affected Boka Ascencion. A landowner in the area offered a large terrain where the Sargassum can be taken and allowed to dry in the sun for processing.

However, there was still a major obstacle: The sea salt from the ocean needed to be removed first for the plan to be feasible.

The US Consulate to the Dutch Caribbean in Willemstad came to the rescue by agreeing to make available a solar-powered mobile reverse osmosis plant to purify water it had purchased after Hurricane Irma but never used. This should produce enough freshwater to wash out the salt.

Several of such plants were also brought to St. Maarten by the Netherlands following the passage of the earlier-mentioned catastrophic tropical cyclone on September 6, 2017. If one is still on the island, perhaps something similar as in Curaçao could be tried.