Michael Stewart, Member of Parliament for Manchester Southern says: “Jamaicans should take stock of the costs and benefits of the bauxite/alumina industry,” following more bitter complaints about its negative effects.
The residents of Rose Hill on the Manchester Plateau, at the heart of Stewart's constituency, protested by blocking trucks carrying bauxite ore and appealing for help with dust pollution and noise irritancies activated by bauxite mining near to their homes.
The residents expressed their anger by saying that there was no consultation with them before the start of the mining as on 2nd May’20, in the immediate locality of their homes.
After meeting the protestors Stewart said: “This has been happening for too long now; we have to wonder if the industry is worth all this trouble.”
As a result of the protest, a representative of bauxite/alumina company JISCO Alpart met with residents and took a list of complaints and requests for compensation to his superiors at the plant's headquarters in Nain, St Elizabeth.
The JISCO representative is to return to Rose Hill to report to residents later this week.
The Chinese-owned JISCO Alpart shut-down refining operations late last year to prepare for modernization and expansion but continued to mine and stockpile bauxite ore on the Manchester Plateau with the help of contractors.
The modernization and expansion phase of the JISCO Alpart plant is yet to begin, as the COVID-19 epidemic has been a major reason for the delay.
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