The government of Trinidad & Tobago has plans for the industrialisation of the Cedros Peninsula. This includes two aluminium smelters (by Alcoa and Alutrint) and two Industrial Estates, one each at Union Village and Cap-de-Ville (Chatham) respectively.

The proposed Alcoa smelter in particular has been at the centre of much controversy. While many seem unaware or disinterested, these plans warrant urgent national attention, as they are replete with social, economic and political overtones of grave significance.

Aluminium smelting requires lots of cheap energy, and the two smelters alone will require a supply of electricity equivalent to the whole of T&T’s current domestic supply. Compared to the current cost of 15 c/ kWh, and in the face of a possible hike in electricity rates for normal citizens, Alcoa, a multibillion dollar multinational conglomerate, is being offered the kind price of 9 c/ kWh!

This electricity is generated from natural gas, proven reserves of which are estimated to last to 2017 at current extraction rates, which the government is set to increase.

The Daily Express Opinion (15/04/06) notes the “price of natural gas for Alcoa” and “possible taxation on the operation of the smelter” as suspiciously “clouded in confidentiality”; the Trinidad and Business Guardian have reported an agreement of 15 years free gas (22/12/05, 28/04/05).

Alcoa’s slogan may be “Putting the energy of Trinidad and Tobago to work in Trinidad and Tobago”, but the question is, for whom?

Meanwhile, in true style, PM Manning continues to repeat unsubstantiated statements in the hope that they be accepted as truth (anyone remember: “Crime is going down!”). He claims now that the “Smelter will boost the economy.” Well, the question is, how?

Alcoa’s website states “Alcoa will hold 100% interest in the smelter… the Government… an active partner in the provision or facilitation of… infrastructure”, and the T & T Government has reportedly agreed to build an electricity power station and a port.

Jobs? A highly automated plant like Alcoa’s will require a minimum number of highly skilled workers. Also, construction labour is already in short supply in Trinidad.

Thus, of the 1,500 jobs created during construction of the Alutrint smelter, 1,000 will go to imported Chinese labourers, Alutrint stating that Trinidadians do not have the skills required to build the smelter.

Fr Wilfred John raises the issue of population density, among other matters, in his letter to the Catholic News (09/04/06). Other countries in which Alcoa has smelters all have significantly lower population densities than T & T.

Brazil with over eight million square kilometres has 21 people per km2, Canada with over nine million square kilometres has three people per km2 Australia with over seven million square kilometers has two people per km2.

Trinidad with only five thousand square kilometers has 250 persons. Why bring such a toxic industry to such a small country that could hardly escape the poisonous gas emissions, and the liquid and solid waste’s impact on where we live and how we live?

And to compound the health and environmental impact, government is planning not one, but two smelters within four kilometres of each other, as well as other heavy industries all clustered together, all with chemical emissions.

Do the mothers of the affected areas realise what the air quality is going to be like in say Point Fortin, which is sandwiched between the two industrial sites? How will mothers in La Brea or Sobo protect their little children’s lungs from all this chemical air?

The Alutrint smelter and adjacent NEC industrial estate will displace over 100 families, with the number rising as the Chatham, Cap de Ville area is threatened to be cleared for Alcoa, displacing in all seven places of worship, including churches, a mosque and a temple and building over a cemetery.

Whose parents are buried there? Will they never be able to go to pray at their father’s grave anymore?  Who is measuring the social impact of this modernisation plan?

Who is watching silently as the fabric of out social life is torn apart in favor of progress?  Does anyone realise that they are destroying things sacred to a society? Things that hold a society together?  Things that can never be replaced or rebuilt?

The atrocities of the unscrupulous NEC only shock and amaze. Union villagers awoke one morning on Easter Sunday 2004 to the sound of tractors, snuck in under cover of night, illegally clearing hundreds of acres of their beloved forest and bursting their dam; deer, monkeys and other rare and endangered wildlife being displaced and slaughtered in the process.

In one fell swoop PM Manning intends to sacrifice the people and natural environment of this healthy, pristine peninsula, one of the few unspoiled places left in this beautiful land, in the name of so called “development”!
And then there is the whole health and environment issue.

The smelters and industrial estates currently in existence produce toxic wastes with possible effects as diverse and serious as acid rain, global warming, lung irritation, cancer, renal failure and death!

Alcoa, an established international company with decades of experience (and volumes of lawsuits), may very well promise to adhere to international standards, but who knows what to expect from a newly formed Trinidad-based company Alutrint.

Ten and 20- year plans for reducing toxic waste discharge sound nice, but what happens in the interim?

What of the cumulative effects of years of emissions from the entire industrial estates? Especially in our small, densely-populated, already heavily-industrialised (and polluted) island, with our almost non-existent enforcement of already pitiful environmental legislation? The results spell disaster.

Whatever little oil money happens to trickle down is nullified by rising food prices, the result of decreased local production as prime agricultural land is consumed by residential and industrial estates.

Yet, to get Trinis to stand up for something outside of Carnival or football remains a huge challenge, even when it involves our own future.

It is our moral and civic responsibility as citizens, students and Catholics, to be informed and to get involved to defend the weak and vulnerable (this includes the environment) against exploitation and injustice, and to exercise responsible stewardship of God’s Creation.

Mothers of the nation, read and think. You are the ones who nurture our children. What are you doing about this? Where are the men of faith, the protectors of families?

Catholic businessmen, think in your hearts, are you more Catholic or more businessmen?  Why the deafening silence of so many of our moral leaders?

For what does it profit a land, to become “First World” for the price of its soul!