ALUMINA Partners (Alpart) has pledged its continued assistance, at least for the next 12 months, to sports and other social programmes, despite its scheduled closure next month due to the current state of the global economy.

“We make our plans for expenditure on a yearly basis,” Managing Director Alberto Fabrini told the Sunday Observer, adding that J$30 million had been set aside to finance programmes for residents of the area commonly referred to as the ‘bread basket’ of the country this year.

At the same time, he said that the closure of the refinery was only temporary and that Alpart expected to remain a part of the St Elizabeth community.

“We will continue with the community councils. We will continue the water supply,” Fabrini emphasised, adding that they would also focus on income-generating activities, such as agriculture. In addition, education and sports will remain priorities, although some activities would be scaled down, Fabrini said.

“A back-to-school help for the needy, 70 high school bursaries and seven scholarships to tertiary institutions – those are the main programmes that we want to help with,” said the company’s corporate communications manager, Lance Neita.

He added that Alpart Sports club would remain open and a subsidy of regional sports meets continued during the down period.

One casualty, however, is the annual visit of 100 rural school boy footballers to Norway through the Essex Valley football development programme.

“There just isn’t the money to do it,” Neita said.

Last month, reacting to the constriction of the global economy, Alpart announced it would temporarily shut down the plant for at least a year, effective May 15 and that 900 permanent workers – many of them from the St Elizabeth/Manchester region – would be made redundant. Before that, approximately 1,000 temporary workers were given their marching orders as the crisis took its toll.

But the losses could reverberate much further than the 1,900 workers and impact the lives of almost everyone living close to the refinery.

“Miss Junie” who operates a small grocery shop at Stephen’s Run – a district in walking distance from the plant – lamented the Alpart redundancies, saying sales at her business place have fallen significantly since last month.

“Nobody not buying anything,” she told the Sunday Observer. “Things slow bad since them start let go people.”

The more than 50-year-old plant has woven itself into the fabric of the south St Elizabeth landscape, offering assistance to residents in education, sports, agriculture, health and community development. Neita explained that 90 community councils, made up of residents from the districts, provided the connection between the refinery and residents where problems and plans were discussed.

“Activities in the area revolve around the councils – 45 in south St Elizabeth and another 45 at the mining areas in Manchester,” Neita said, adding that as a result of consultations, a special agriculture package is planned where RADA-registered farmers would be assisted by the bauxite company.

Meanwhile, for some Jamaicans, bauxite mining is an evil intrusion that systematically destroys the environment, leaving scars on the landscape. Others, especially those living near the Alpart plant, see it as a lifeline, providing income and water.

“If Alpart stop the water, then everything down yah dry up,” a worker commented during a Sunday Observer tour of the area last week.

Complaints of washed clothes damaged on the line, constant dust on furniture and corroding roofs are considered necessary evils as economic activities continue.

Lenworth Blake, former south-east St Elizabeth Member of Parliament and chairman for the Nain Community Council, said that whenever there is a case of excessive emission or dusting from the plant, compensation is paid by Alpart.

Blake, who said that he worked at Alpart up to 1993, recalled the dislocation in the predominantly farming area when the refinery was closed in 1985 for two and a half years.

“Economic activity around the plant simply came to a standstill,” he said.