No benefit from bauxite – residents
Published:Saturday | February 19, 2022 | 12:06 AMRuddy Mathison/Gleaner Writer
THOUGH EARNING millions of dollars in foreign exchange annually, residents of rural Jamaica continue to question bauxite’s benefits to the communities where the refineries are located.
Residents in Hayes, New Bowens, and a number of other rural communities in Clarendon have pointed to decades of neglect, underdevelopment, environmental and health hazards, insufficient employment, and a general stagnation in the microeconomic outlook of their communities as evidence of the bauxite industry not contributing to an improvement of their lives and communities.
While the issue of deforestation and land reclamation for agricultural purposes are not contending factors for these residents since Jamalco’s mines are located in neighbouring Manchester, on the Oliphant Plateau and in Harmony Valley, the issue of the mud lake located within close proximity to their communities continues to pose environmental and health concerns for them.
“Over the years, we nuh get nothing from the bauxite plant in this area, only about 20 per cent of us get work. Even with the hardships we face with the odour from the mud lake and things in the air that dry up our crops, we get nothing,” complained Kevin Josephs, a farmer from the New Works Phase One community in Hayes.
“I plant pumpkins and sweet peppers and more time mi see some little white spots come on them and it a kill the pumpkin and the sweet pepper, and don’t care how you put fertiliser, them dead out, and mi know it caused from the bauxite,” he further revealed.
Cameka Williams, who has lived in Hayes all her life, said the effects of the dust on her health and furniture in her home have been troubling.
“I have given up on the idea of getting anything personally from the bauxite company, all they do is promise and nothing happen, right now the dust cause me to have breeding problems all the time, and every week mi have fi dust off the furniture because of the dust, not to mention the smell coming from the mud lake,” said the 43-year-old.
New Bowens resident Shawn Callaghan said they were relocated to the community in 1990 to facilitate the establishment of the mud lake, but no effort was put into making sure that proper infrastructure, such as drainage and proper roads, was put in place.
“When it rains, we are flooded out because the drains are not working properly, we get a raw deal from the bauxite company, even my fruit trees in my yard are being affected by the pollution in the air,” he said while pointing to some black spots on the plant leaves. He decried the pace at which the company is processing the property titles for residents in the community, pointing out that less than 50 per cent of homeowners have received registered titles.
His wife Tameka Callaghan complained of constant respiratory problems caused by the dust associated with the bauxite processing.
Residents also pointed to a lack of infrastructural development, highlighting their request for the establishment of a skills training centre where the old Hayes primary school was located, but have not received any favourable response towards any assistance over the years.