Jamaica’s Dust: The Bauxite Industry
Anshula Chowdhury went on a Canada World Youth exchange in 2006/2007

When the plane door opened to the Jamaican night on December 8, 2006, I was hit with a wall of heat. The air was impossibly clean after the stuffiness of the airport cabin, and the warmth sat comfortably in the air. It was a Jamaican hello.

My exchange program took place in Williamsfield, Jamaica, on the south western corner of the island. There were about twenty churches - typical of a country that rivals Greece for the most churches per square kilometre - and as many bars. All the participants of my exchange were to be scattered in educational institutions throughout the district. I worked at Blue Mountain Basic School, a small two room affair with forty children and two full time staff. Williamsfield’s major industry was bauxite mining, a seemingly mundane piece of information that was to become more important throughout my trip.

I was to learn two things from bauxite: First, that it was the unrefined source of aluminium, forming the second largest industry in Jamaica. Second, I learned that Canada’s aluminium industry, Alcan had established the Kirkvine bauxite plant in the fifties. The waste from the plant, which contains caustic soda, was dumped in a “mud lake”.

Within a few weeks of my stay, Windalco, a bauxite company started hauling massive quantities of earth away from the hillsides to create an open bauxite mine.  Suddenly, the idyllic walk to work was transformed into a tricky manoeuvring of school kids around the growing bauxite mine, which ran conveniently through the main road of Williamsfield. This paired with the lack of fencing around the strip mine and its heavy machinery became a constant worry. Near the end of my trip, in February 2007, I heard that some of my students had contracted asthma.
There has been much contention about the effects of bauxite mining. Many farmers claim that the mines destroy crops, and the close proximity of mines to residential areas poses serious safety concerns. The mine in Williamsfield was within 100 metres of my home.

A medical student at the University of the West Indies, Patrece Charles-Freeman, conducted studies on the health effects of bauxite mining. Her studies, involved 2, 559 individuals and concluded that residents living around bauxite refineries suffered from markedly ill health. Specifically, 21% of children and 37% of adults living within six miles of bauxite processing plants have sinusitis. Incidents of asthma also rose around refining areas, with 23% of adults and 26% of children suffering from the disease. The World Health Organization asserts that bauxite can cause bauxite fibrosis of the lung.

Basil P. Fernandez, the managing director of the Water Resources Authority, which is funded by the Jamaican government, sent an open letter to the daily Jamaica Observer. The director claimed that water levels were within the World Health Organization’s drinking standards. However these claims have been disputed, For example, Junior John, a Jamaican expatriate and founder of Jamaica Bauxite Environmental Organization (JBEO) conducted independent samplings with Fisher Environmental Ltd., a private environmental consulting firm in Markham, Ontario. The conclusions contradicted Fernandez’s findings, noting high concentrations in aluminium, iron, selenium and zinc and ends with a recommendation that inhabitants use masks on an ongoing basis.

Most interesting in this affair is the Jamaica Bauxite Institute (or JBI) role in the problems. The JBI’s mandate is to monitor the environmental effects of bauxite mining. The body’s regulatory role is important because the government holds up to 51% of some bauxite companies, notably Kaiser Ltd. However, complaints from Jamaican citizens go notoriously unheeded.

Alcan sold its stake in Jamaica to Glencore AG, a Swiss aluminium company in 2001. Since then the company has received kudos from Corporate Knights, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and Ford’s World Environmental Leadership Award.

As far as catastrophes go, Jamaica’s bauxite mines are on the small end of the scale. The citizens of the island reap economic benefits from the bauxite industry, which provides employment in an economy that sorely needs it. However, looking at the marred landscape of Williamsfield, I had to wonder: is it worth it?-R