Entire nation will bear burden of smelter

Published: 21 Jun 2009
http://guardian.co.tt/commentary/letters/2009/06/21/entire-nation-will-bear-burden-smelter

The saying: “You can take a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink,” is relevant to the Government’s pitch for the construction of smelters in Trinidad and Tobago and citizens’ resistance against mindlessly drinking at the trough. All citizens would be wise to ask: what is the quality and nature of the water that the horse was led to?

In other words, are one or a dozen smelters really in the best interest of the people of this country and our children’s children? Locally, a question that concerns all of us is what effect will an aluminium smelter have on the health, environment, renewable resources such as marine life, wealth and so on of the peoples of T&T? It would be foolhardy for the population to subscribe to denial of the clear hazards smelters inevitably trigger—a wave of cancers, respiratory disease, Alzheimer’s disease, spent potliner toxins, groundwater pollution, air pollution, mass land lost to buffer-zones, and the list goes on and on. These side-effects of smelting build up over time as the byproducts of bauxite reduction to aluminium come to form part of our diet. Some years ago the Government led the nation to the “murky watering hole idea” of smelter construction, pitching of course the savoury benefits— many new short- and long-term jobs, downstream industries, use of new smelter technology and, of course, wealth creation. Government’s polished tone said nothing about the health, environmental and social implications. We now hear of the need to test residents near the proposed plant, and its workers, for cancer and other diseases every two years. We continue to see political manoeuvring to polarise La Brea residence from the rest of the country. This as if to suggest that what happens in La Brea has no effect on the wider national community. However, the world financial crisis, Sahara dust, global warming and climate change are all instructive of how activities in one part of the world can and do affect other regions of the world. La Brea forms part of our world here in T&T. The adverse implications of a smelter in La Brea will not only affect La Brea residence. The implications will fall on the national community. It is incumbent on every citizen to comprehend this, regardless of whether Prime Minister Manning chooses to dispute the presence of La Brea residence among the anti-smelter cause. If all citizens are meant to benefit from the so-called positives of the Alutrint smelters, in similar vein all will bear the burden if smelters—the world’s most toxic industry—is introduced into this little country. People who choose to believe the 24/7 30-year operation of a smelter will have no effect on them because they are not resident in La Brea delude themselves. Citizens who choose to ignore or remain ignorant of the delicate environmental, social and economic fabric upon which T&T exist will be in for a big surprise should smelters ever commence operations on this 1,841 squaremile island. B Joseph Via e-mail