Residents respond

Sunday, May 17th 2009
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161478461

Residents of the affected areas say they are concerned about the need for repeated cancer testing, with many questioning the State's motive for building the plant in their area.

"I don't know why they putting us through this? We never asked for this and, as a matter of fact, we are not even going to be benefitting from this. All we stand to do is lose," one resident of Vance River-a very small rural community told this newspaper as she was waited on the Harris Promenade in San Fernando with fellow villagers for transport to their homes.

A man standing nearby, listening to her response, shouted out:

"Is wipe out they trying to wipe we out. This is something they didn't even want in Australia, where they have so much wide expanse of land away from where people living.

"Why? Is because they know the dangers of this thing," he said.

A middle-aged woman who said she was born in La Brea-a community where small scale farming and fishing are prime sources of income, lamented that many people were going to suffer because of the smelter.

Vessigny resident Fabien Lee Foon said the cancer testing only added to the stress that they, the residents of the affected areas, have been through since the start of the project, which was casting a shadow of uncertainty over their lives.

"We have been affected by this, the construction of the smelter plant, from day one. When they cleared out acres of virgin forests leaving us in a dust bowl and now that the construction has started, we are being affected by dust and noise.

"And now learning that we are going to have to be tested for cancer..."