In recent months, other island nations have adopted a new global tool that could prove useful for the Virgin Islands while government completes the long-promised National Addressing System.
The British company What3Words has developed an algorithm that assigns a three-word designation for each three-metre square on earth. Last month, St. Maarten signed on, joining the Polynesian island kingdom of Tonga as well as Mongolia, Djibouti and the Ivory Coast.
The system is helping these countries alleviate problems that sound very familiar, such as issues with mail delivery and emergency response.
Here in the VI, the government has struggled since the 1980s to implement a national addressing system. Some progress has been made — including fairly recent signage in Road Town — but significant challenges remain in spite of repeated promises through the years.
To be sure, the project isn’t easy. Many streets, for example, still need to be officially named, a process that can quickly stall in a territory where any given roadway may have multiple traditional names that carry different significance for different people.
But until a system is in place, problems will persist. Mail delivery remains extraordinarily difficult, emergency workers often struggle to respond efficiently, and the simple act of giving directions to one’s own home can prove onerous.
What3Words or any other system that makes use of emerging technology perhaps could help assuage such problems here as they have abroad. The VI should watch closely, and carefully consider any such system that proves itself.
That said, however, we do not see What3Words as a panacea by any means. Its assignation of random words to addresses, after all, foregoes the cultural and historical aspects of a more standard addressing system.
Still, it might well serve as a suitable stopgap measure until a permanent system is in place.
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