BACK in April 2019, Miss Fiona Facey, a young resident of Austin, close to the JISCo Alpart bauxite/alumina plant in St Elizabeth, verbally captured mixed feelings in her community about the bauxite/alumina sector.

“Look here,” she told this newspaper, “… We are happy that a lot of young people are up and working, providing for their families. But is one thing to provide for your family and then another thing, a few years down the line, you losing your family… everybody dead.”

Overly dramatic perhaps, but her comments embraced a popular feeling that, important though it was for employment and the local economy, the bauxite/alumina sector posed serious health dangers including terminal illnesses, and also undermined the natural environment.

For residents of bauxite mining and processing regions across Jamaica, sentiments would be so much more positive if there was more to show for having hosted the industry.

Sadly, far too many feel worse off, despite the upbeat outlook down the years by Cabinet ministers with portfolio responsibilities for mining, finance, and the wider economy.

In south-east St Elizabeth and south Manchester, for example, many people are still without water from the National Water Commission — more than 20 years after it was first promised because of mining/refining-related contamination of their rainwater catchment.

We recall the lament in 2014 from then Opposition Jamaica Labour Party aspirant for Manchester Central Mr St Aubyn Bartlett, about the impact of mining and the absence of any lasting legacy from bauxite/alumina.

“I think that [bauxite companies have] seriously let down Manchester,” Mr Bartlett said at the time. “I think after 50-odd years in Manchester mining bauxite, predominantly what is left is a lot of craters in the ground…”

Nor can we forget the forlorn cry of former People’s National Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Manchester Southern Mr Michael Stewart after he was called on by constituents to do something about bauxite mining close to their homes, rendering their lives a living hell.

Residents in the Rose Hill community claimed at the time that, without even bothering to consult them, the mining company and its contractors had started work, triggering clouds of dust driven by strong winds.

Mr Stewart wondered back then “if the industry is worth all this trouble…”

Said he: “For decades bauxite mining has degraded the countryside — flora and fauna destroyed, farms damaged and destroyed, water quality eroded — and the people who live in the mining communities have nothing to show. If anything, it has left them poorer…”

So Senator Peter Bunting’s recent call for a “deliberate plan” to be established to gradually phase out bauxite mining and alumina refining in order to minimise environmental damage makes perfect sense in our view.

In any case, by most estimates, bauxite reserves outside of protected areas — not least the Cockpit Country — can only last another 20-30 years.

Do we really believe economic benefits from such reserves outweigh the inevitable degradation?

We agree with Mr Bunting — a three-term former MP for Manchester Central — that as a nation we can’t stay focused on short-term economic benefits while “sacrificing the natural environment for a tiny fraction of the value it holds for future generations”.

Jamaicans and their leaders should properly take stock of the bauxite/alumina industry in 2024 and act accordingly.