Acloud of doom hangs thickly over communities in Manchester where the only source of income for many families is threatened by the pending closure of the West Indies Alumina Company (Windalco).

Entire communities have for years relied on Windalco to provide not only jobs but also social amenities. Schools, health centres and roads have been developed and maintained by the bauxite company, while housewives budget monthly for the $500 per room it pays in compensation for the dust nuisance in areas being mined. With no piped water, households also received a monthly supply of water trucked to them by the company.

But for two weeks now residents have not received such payments and water has not been trucked to their homes.

Last Tuesday when the Sunday Observer visited Blue Mountain, a community in Manchester, a teenage girl struggled with two large bottles of water while another resident, Jean Brown, bought a truckload for $7,000.

Windalco announced a week ago the pending temporary closure of its Kirkvine and Ewarton refineries on March 31, putting more than 250 part-time workers out of a job and leaving the fate of 850 permanent staff hanging in the balance.

Many say they have not slept since they heard the news. Hyacinth Small operates a small grocery shop, supported by workers employed to Washington, a sub-contractor of Windalco who has been mining for two years in the community.

Two Fridays ago she made her last sale and three days later her customers telephoned to bid her goodbye, as they had lost their jobs.

Her fiancée, the other breadwinner in the house, also lost his job.

“The older people around here say is the first them ever see something like this,” Small told the Sunday Observer as she sat around the counter of her shop now empty of customers.

Jean Brown and a dozen of her male colleagues, all residents of Blue Mountain, lost their jobs when Washington pulled out of the community.

“Is 33 a wi lose wi job one time around here,” she said, as they pass the time gambling inside the community centre.

Brown also operated a cook shop, selling lunch to miners. Now everything is at a standstill.

“Some a wi nuh have nuh plan B and so wi just a siddung yah suh and play a little bingo,” she said.

Her colleagues said they used to farm on Windalco-owned land but that has been destroyed because of mining, leaving many of them without options.

Desperation has already set in for some residents who recently blocked the road and burnt shacks in protest against Windalco’s failure to pay last month’s ‘dust money’. The residents claim they are getting sick from the dust as the company’s water trucks, which used to wet the road, has not been in the community for sometime now.

“Them not wetting it up again and now a whole heap a wi sick off,” Brown said.

At the Kirkvine plant, some workers who still have jobs are none the happier for it as they believe they will only be allowed to work a few days each week. One worker, who requested anonymity, said they were informed at an emergency meeting that they will be required to do various odd jobs when the plant closes. They believe it is a sign that more of them will soon be out of work when their services are no longer necessary.

“From morning wi siddung over the plant and nah duh nutten,” the worker said.

To them this means the death of communities, an increase in crime and, as one worker puts it, ” starvation for many”.

Already there are telltale signs.

“Gees” bar, usually abuzz at midday, is unusually quiet. Of the three customers sitting on bar stools, only one man slowly sips a drink in an apparent effort to make it last.

At Lisa’s car wash and cook shop, a short distance from the Kirkvine refinery, it was empty of its usual lunch-time crowd. One of two bauxite workers – the only customers seen at the establishment for the near two hours the Sunday Observer was there – said his colleagues were holding back on spending given the job insecurity.

“Nuff man nah come eat no lunch today because dem over deh worried about what going to happen to them,” said the worker who asked not to be named.

Lisa doesn’t know how much longer she can afford to stay in business or how she will find the required $1,000 daily to send her two children to school. She is also now contemplating the fate of the two employees at the car wash.

Lisa said it is the worst she has seen it as many of her customers already bade her goodbye, suspecting they could soon be out of a job.

“Right now nuff restaurant close down a Mandeville because wi use to support them, but wi haffi hold back pon the little weh wi have because wi nuh know what ah go happen down the road,” one worker said.

Many have no other skills, having gone to work in bauxite immediately after leaving school. Others say they are on the lookout for other jobs but this may prove difficult since the shutters of several businesses have been closed.

The bauxite workers are full of despair evident by knitted brows and dazed stares, but they are also angry.

“What happen to the whole heap ah profit them mek before now? Dem jus dig out wi land and gone a foreign with all ah wi riches and leave wi wid nothing,” said one angry worker.

They are also upset that they had to hear through the media about the impending closure.

Meanwhile, truck operators who got loans to buy vehicles to haul bauxite are now trying to sell them before they lose their homes which were used as collateral.

“Some a wi even put up wi house fi borrow money fi buy these trucks and now wi going to lose both house and truck,” noted John Hardy, a resident of Content.

The bauxite-dependent communities are no strangers to changes at Windalco, having seen ownership change hands three times. But they have never heard of a closure, albeit temporary, and they don’t know how they will adjust.

Resident Lilline Stewart said many people depend on the ‘dust money’ to feed their families and pay electricity bills.

“I don’t have a clue what wi will do for water because they haven’t brought any for sometime now,” she said, nervously moving her fingers.

Workers at two dairy farms operated by Windalco say they are also worried about their jobs, since the entities relied heavily on subsidies from that company.