Letter of the Day | An incongruous anomaly

THE EDITOR, Madam:​

A few days ago, I drove the route from Moneague in St Ann to Guys Hill on the St Ann-St Mary-St Catherine border. I say ‘route’ because it was a road only in places and yet, as the shortest connection between Guys Hill and the ‘outside world’, I believe it must have once been (and still could be) a well-used corridor.

What struck me was that the road, narrow, overgrown and potholed, was in stark contrast to the bauxite industry roads that cross it in three places. The latter were wide, tidy and with a smooth surface despite the lack of asphalt. At one such crossing, there were three enormous machines, including two excavators. But ahead of me, and almost hard to see, was the continuation of the eleven-mile public ‘road’ to Guys Hill.

To vastly improve the road from Moneague to Guys Hill would take the machines I saw very little time at all. I know that is a simplification, but my point is that the scale of resources/machinery available to, and employed by, the private bauxite sector completely and utterly dwarfs that available to the National Works Agency. These days, Jamaica earns comparatively little from that sector, and yet the sector remains and operates here as an incongruous anomaly.

Surely, part of any bauxite concession should be a much more community-aligned approach, such that the proximate communities really do benefit, including their roads. In other bauxite-mining areas I have visited, there is very little sign of the prosperity that the locals deserve, especially given the multiple challenges caused by the industry.

There needs to be a much better public-private balance in Jamaica, but that will happen only if we demand it.

PAUL WARD

pgward72@gmail.com

Oracabessa, St Mary