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Saturday, July 28, 2007
OPPOSITION Leader Bruce Golding said that a JLP government will not allow bauxite firms to get away with environmental breaches while mining ore in rural areas.
"Bauxite is important to Jamaica. We cannot discourage bauxite mining, but what I see go on in some sections of Manchester and what I see going on in Ernie Smith's area (South-West St Ann) won't be allowed to continue under my government," Golding told supporters attending Sunday night's JLP mass rally in Spaldings, Clarendon.
"The bauxite companies are going to be made to understand that when you go in and you take out the bauxite, fix back the place before you leave. And by fixing it back, I don't mean throw four inches of top soil on it. Fix back the place properly," he added.
Golding also referred to the fumes generated by the processing at the plants which, he said, sometimes cause asthma and bronchitis in small children.
"When they mining bauxite in the developed countries, when they doing that kind of operation, they cannot do it that way. They are not going to be allowed to do it that way in Jamaica. They are going to have to put in the equipment and the technology to dispose of those fumes some other way," he said.
Golding also reiterated that the $3 billion a year earned from the levy will be ploughed back into the mined-out communities.
OPPOSITION Leader Bruce Golding said that a JLP government will not allow bauxite firms to get away with environmental breaches while mining ore in rural areas.
"Bauxite is important to Jamaica. We cannot discourage bauxite mining, but what I see go on in some sections of Manchester and what I see going on in Ernie Smith's area (South-West St Ann) won't be allowed to continue under my government," Golding told supporters attending Sunday night's JLP mass rally in Spaldings, Clarendon.
"The bauxite companies are going to be made to understand that when you go in and you take out the bauxite, fix back the place before you leave. And by fixing it back, I don't mean throw four inches of top soil on it. Fix back the place properly," he added.
Golding also referred to the fumes generated by the processing at the plants which, he said, sometimes cause asthma and bronchitis in small children.
"When they mining bauxite in the developed countries, when they doing that kind of operation, they cannot do it that way. They are not going to be allowed to do it that way in Jamaica. They are going to have to put in the equipment and the technology to dispose of those fumes some other way," he said.
Golding also reiterated that the $3 billion a year earned from the levy will be ploughed back into the mined-out communities.