Productions: Panoscope

Panoscope . Media Briefings . Island Beat . Our Own Voice . Le P'tit Nouvelliste
Order Publications

Panoscope Articles Index

Bauxite – a dirty word in Mocho, Clarendon
Residents protest decades of improper resettlement

 By Avia Ustanny , Freelance Writer

Kingston, 11 July 2006 (Panos) - As languages go, Jamaica has one of the more colourful collections of swear words in its lexicon. In Mocho, Clarendon there is one which is unique to that area. The word is Bauxite.

The air was blue with the word recently as over two hundred residents of communities in the Mocho area gathered at Lennon high school to voice complaints about Jamalco – the bauxite company which had started a resettlement process some three decades ago, but which for many is still incomplete.

Many residents have died without being completely resettled, leaving their children worried about their security of tenure.

Roy McClean, representing father Percival McClean who died in 2003 said: “We started out with Jamalco in 1991 when they relocated us from Stewarton Big Pasture to Magil Palm. My father died before the process was complete. He did not make a will because he did not have a title. Jamalco sent us to the Administrator General which said that none of us were under 18 so they could not help. They sent us back to the company. From that time, all we can here is next week, next week. We did get a house and some lands, but there are outstanding monies for the original house and some crops.”

Under the Mining Act, a compensation package for crops and structures on land to be mined must be worked out by the company involved.  In some cases where resettlement involves moving an entire community, water, electricity and associated infrastructure must be provided under the Act. Through the develo pme nt of resettlement lands, the companies should ensure that affected persons improve or at least regain their former standard of living and earning capacity after a reasonable transition period.

Connection fees for electricity and water should be paid for by the company and a tank of approximately 7000 gallons should be constructed.

In Mocho, residents say that instead of being returned to their secure farming lifestyle they have been getting a royal run-around from Jamalco.

Only one resident present at the school had a title. It was Muriel Eccles who had taken Jamalco to court.

Eccles was first living in Glenmuir when she signed a resettlement agreement in October 1968. In 1974 she was asked to move. Eccles said that the Bauxite company had previously planned to resettle her in Rhinesbury and she started building a house there, but when it was almost complete it was discovered that there were drainage problems which could not be fixed.

Eccles complained to the bauxite company, and, getting no response, went to May Pen health department and finally to the parish council. In response, the Bauxite company “gave me a notice to leave the lease land on which I resided. They took me to court for repossession of property.”
Eccles won and Alcoa appealed. Then she won again.

She then asked them to resettle her properly and they refused. “I had to go back to court for a third time. The day when the issue was to be tried Jamalco asked for an out of court settlement,” the farmer says.

The company finally decided to allow her to resettle in Dawkins.

“They rebuilt my house and tank and paid legal fees.”
Eccles secured the title to her new property in August 1989 and now says, “it is the company’s negligence why so many people are not resettled. There are many who are now having problems who had registered titles to original their land. In every aspect with Alcoa, there is a problem.”

Other residents have been waiting for decades.

According to Alfred Frances, chairman of the complaining group, many residents still don’t have concrete documentation.

“They said they have resettled us but none of us do not have a paper to show – some for as long as 26 years. You have people who they have taken out of their house for ten years and put in rent house. Those are unfair things. These people want to go back to their farming.”

Another farmer, Gloria Adams of Denbigh Crawl, said that her 84 year old father was still to get all the land promised to him in the resettlement agreement. She also complained of constant flooding on her own resettled lot.

“We have improper drainage - flood water from the front to the back. I write to them and complained, but nothing at all [was] done. I can’t plant any crops at all. Its foolishness going to the Bauxite company, you can get nothing from them.”

The residents have put together a plan of action which include approaching the Jamaica Bauxite Institute (JBI) about their problem.

But Mrs. Dianne Gordon, of the Jamaica Bauxite Institute was very reluctant to comment on the issue to Panos.

“I can’t talk about the details of Jamalco’s business in Mocho. Some people I know are still waiting. But, there is a time line and resettlement can take up to four years.”

Jamalco is an enterprise owned by the government of Jamaica and the Aluminium Company of America (Alcoa) - the worlds leading producer of primary alumina, fabricated aluminium. The last bauxite company to come to Jamaica, its operations have taken place in the Breadnut Valley Mines of the Mocho Mountains since the 1960’s. There are about 6000 residents in the rural farming community.

The international company which has a US$24 billion annual income stream, in 2004 signed an agreement with the government of Jamaica to expand the Jamalco alumina refinery in Clarendon, adding 1.5 million metric tons per year (mtpy) of production, more than doubling the refinery's capacity to approximately 2.8 million mtpy. The expansion is expected to be completed by the end of 2007.

In the context of this expansion, the company would do well to diffuse its reputation for an unfair and inefficient resettlement policy.

“Jamalco recognizes that there are outstanding resettlement issues in the Mocho area. Each resettlement agreement is unique, and there are some individual problems, for example with proof of ownership, however persons can be assured that the company will honour its contracts and will work with individuals to ensure their situation is addressed,” said Mr Alberto Fabrini, Managing Director of Jamalco. “In the case of deceased estates, Jamalco will follow the normal legal channels and work with the estate administrator.”

He also addressed concerns by the residents about the location of its resettlement office.

“I t is understandable that people with outstanding business arrangements are worried about Jamalco leaving the Mocho area.  Consequently we are setting up a full time office in Four Paths, Clarendon. This will be an easily accessible, central office to service those people that have ongoing business arrangements with Jamalco,” he said. “In the interim, we will maintain an office in the current Woodside lands office complex.  We had planned to maintain a small office in Mocho, however this is not suitable for conducting business of this nature.”

He added that he was committed to resolving all outstanding lands and re-settlement issues associated with the Mocho operation.

Jamalco has supported goat rearing and basic school upgrading projects in Mocho. But, the company’s good works pale in the face of the hurt residents feel over insecurity of tenure – a problem which has been left un-addressed for over two decades.