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<span style="color: #000099"><span style="font-size: 17pt">'We're burdened by bauxite'</span></span>
<span style="font-size: 11pt"><span style="font-weight: bold">Central Manchester farmers want promised homes, farmlands</span></span>
BY INGRID BROWN Sunday Observer senior staff reporter [email protected]
Sunday, May 17, 2009
AS sorry as he was to see his childhood home in Broad Leaf, Manchester smashed to the ground, Andrew Smyle was eager for the new house that Jamalco promised in exchange.
Now almost three years later, his eagerness has turned to anger as the father of five grapples with the sneaky suspicion that there might never be an inheritance for his children if the bauxite company does not honour the agreement.
Throughout the Broad Leaf community, men sit idly under shop piazzas as they complain of not having any jobs or livelihood.
"Almost three years now mi deh a rent house and every day them promise mi say them going to come look at land fi relocate mi and all now, nutten," he said almost in disbelief.
Today, even the hope of making enough to secure his children's future has dissipated with the land he once farmed for a living. Chiding himself for not having hired a lawyer, Smyle believes only those with legal representation got the company to keep their end of the bargain.
"Is just because we simple and don't have money fi lawyers why them a treat we so, but it not going to work," he said adamantly.
Broad Leaf residents complain that large mined sites similar to this one have ravished their good farmlands. (Photos: Gregory Bennet)
Smyle is one of several residents of the farming community in Manchester Central who - once having eagerly awaited bauxite's arrival in the area, under the assumption that it would bring great wealth and development - say they are now facing the reality that it may never happen.
They say they are worse off today, having lost acres of farmland to mining.
Courtney Francis lost his shop and bar when the land was needed for mining, and now he roams the constituency in search of odd jobs.
"Bauxite nuh benefit me," he said forcefully.
It is even more dismal for him, as he was not compensated because the land was not officially his.
Broad Leaf residents harboured high hopes bauxite would improve their living standards and make the area as affluent as other communities transformed by bauxite income. Instead, they say they are seeing only gaping holes where fertile lands once stood filled with bounty from the earth.
"Many residents live in rent house and can't hear nothing," said Lemarco Ellis. "Wi nuh have nobody fi talk up fi we."
Residents say Jamalco has not brought any "upliftment" to the community. Pointing to a container housing the relocated postal agency and a multipurpose court at the nearby primary school, residents said that is all they received from the company.
Many farmers have become more disgruntled now that they do not have farmlands to fall back on as they say fruit trees which they could make a living from is also being destroyed.
"Bauxite pushing down all the ackee trees and other fruit trees so not even that we don't have fi mek a living from," noted another resident.
With many left without an income, the unemployment line is growing longer.
Young and old men alike sit idly at shop piazzas or along the wayside.
Jerome Ellis used to farm on an acre of land, but was turned off it to facilitate mining. Last Tuesday when the Sunday Observer visited, he sat with friends in the square contemplating just what the future holds.
"We can't do nutten because all a wi land gone," he said in dismay.
Residents said Jamalco is leasing reclaimed lands to farmers, but this is not suitable since the area is only covered with six inches of top soil.
With less income coming in, the community businesses have been hard hit. Many relied on the monthly allowance the company pays to those affected by the dust, but now they say they hardly get it.
"Here you don't even know Friday different from in the week because everything slow down," explained Ellis.
The residents are calling on their Member of Parliament Peter Bunting to ensure bauxite companies keep their word.
But Bunting said it is a long-standing issue which is not easily resolved.
The problem, he said, is not only with one bauxite company as people who made agreements decades ago are still dissatisfied.
"Some had houses built or they took lots in exchange and then decades later issues arise with the quality of house or the reclaimed land is sinking," Bunting said.
The MP added that he spent a lot of time dealing with this problem without any success since it is a private contract between the landowner and the company.
"Most cases require the representation of a lawyer than a MP because at the end of the day the company says 'here is our contract, we did what we promised' and it then becomes a 'he said, she said'," Bunting noted.
Bunting said there are millions of dollars of obligation for bauxite companies to reclaim hundreds of hectares of land and if they pull out of Jamaica now there might not be any recourse for communities and Government.
Ealane Livingston Smith, public relations and media specialist at Jamalco, said the company will honour its obligations to rebuild permanent homes for land vendors who have been relocated. She said residents have asked not to be relocated outside the community and as such Jamalco has adopted a strategy to rehabilitate mined lands and utilise these for resettlement housing.
"As part of the reclamation plan, the area demarcated for resettlement housing will be rehabilitated and used for development later this year," she said.
Livingston Smith said Jamalco's reclamation and rehabilitation of mined pits are guided by standards set by the Mines and Geology Division/Commissioner of Mines and the Jamaica Bauxite Institute.
Jamalco, she said, has also undertaken the refurbishment of schools and other community structures damaged by Hurricane Dean to the tune of US$100,000, in partnership with the Alcoa Foundation, Food for the Poor and the community.
Livingston Smith said the company also launched a community scholarship awards, valued at J$350,000 each year, as well as a back-to-school programme valued at over J$1.4 million. Eighty residents are said to be employed as casual labourers in mining.
Meanwhile, in neighbouring Little Hampton, residents said bauxite has not benefited them as they are left without their land, while having to deal with various ailments caused by dust.
Wadsworth Campbell says not only had bauxite not benefitted small communities like his own, but it also caused a serious downturn in the busy commercial district of Mandeville.
Campbell, who says he earns a living from making dentures, has seen a significant decline in customers while those who still show up just cannot afford the cost.
"Most people can't afford the $30,000 it cost for a set of teeth and sometimes I have to tek all $20,000 although the price for all the products gone up," he said.
James Thompson, a resident of Lower Broad Leaf said residents were blinded by the promise of 'dust money' and did not push for long-term development.
"Nuff people only wanted dust money and black water tank," he said, adding, "no one requested any long-standing projects".
He admits farming has nosedived since mining took most of the land, but believes this can be remedied through greenhouse technology which will allow more crops to be grown in a smaller space.
Other communities in the constituency have flourished from bauxite which began in the early 1950s, resulting somewhat in a shift away from agriculture in many parts.
Much of the lands in the centre of the constituency have been commercialised, with a large number of the estimated 64,000 residents living in affluent communities on the outskirts of the town.
The constituency is home to a hospital, university, colleges and several high schools. It also has a diverse listing of professionals among the 30,000 registered voters.
iiiee boy~~
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