Concerns for our environment

A.W. Sangster

The Cockpit Country: I recently had the opportunity of flying in a small plane from Kingston to Montego Bay. The journey took us over the central mountain ranges of Jamaica. What is interesting in flying a fairly straight course between Tinson Pen and Montego Bay is the characteristic Cockpit hill and valley system which is not restricted to the traditional Cockpit Country of St. Elizabeth, Trelawny and St. James.

The route took us over the sugar cane and citrus fields of Bog Walk and Worthy Park, the Bull Head Mountains and the peaks and valleys of central Jamaica. The more accessible hillsides of the interior reveal occasional cultivation characterised by the typical slash-and-burn agriculture commonly practised in Jamaica. There is often the odd house or a few houses with the access track leading in. We skirted the real Cockpit Country which is extensive and awesome.

As a schoolboy representing St. Elizabeth at cricket I remember journeying to Trelawny one Saturday. The road from Balaclava, through Troy, Warsop to Falmouth borders the Cockpit Country. The journey in the early morning mist on the back of an open truck with steep mountain cliffs on one side of the road and precipitous valleys on the other made it a memorable and somewhat harrowing experience.

We note with interest that Highway 2000 initially planned to slash through the Cockpit Country - recognised as a vital natural reserve - has been rerouted to a more acceptable environmental route. I am not sure whether this was due to the outcry of the Maroons or the howls of the environmentalists. Even so the Highway proposal is fraught with a number of serious concerns. We will return to these in a later column.

Bauxite mining

The flight took us over the Kaiser bauxite mines in St. Ann - now at a standstill due to the explosion at the Texas processing plant. The mining area is distinctive for it illustrates the geological variety in the country and the characteristic morphology which is close to the formally defined cockpit country. Next to pockets of the rich red bauxite ore are limestone hillocks and steep peaks and valleys.

Bauxite mining represents one of the characteristic tensions between industrial development and the protection of the environment. Red mud ponds and dust nuisance are part of the price tag for the development and contribution of that sector to the economy. But there have been some important initiatives by the bauxite companies in dealing with some of these environmental problems.

One of these is the red mud stacking system at the Ewarton works developed by Dr. John Chandler formerly of UWI and then of Alcan. It has meant that the red mud lake on Mt. Rosser is no longer used except in emergencies and the pond is no longer red. Reports are that the alkalinity levels have fallen from a high of 5000 ppm sodium (Na+) to 2800 ppm sodium (Na+) over a 15-year period. The company is exploring the possible use of the pond as a recreational site or alternatively draining the pond and planting trees.

Green Expo

Environmental protection is everybody's business and the upcoming Green Expo of June 9-11 at the National Arena should be a "must see" if it is at all as good as the last one held two years ago.

Helen Stills the environmentalist

We shall miss Helen the Scotswoman who made Jamaica her adopted country and home. In the Remembrance, Minister Burchell Whiteman remarked that Helen was involved in over 35 different Jamaican and international organisations. The tributes at the memorial service were warm and genuine.

She is credited with the development of a specific course on the environment at Knox Community College and certainly she was an activist in every sense of the word. The poem read by Dr. Blossom Nelson characterised her way of life:

Do all the good you can,

In all the ways you can

In all the places you can

At all the times you can

To all the people you can

As long as ever you can (Anon)

We shall miss her warmth and humour. As Rev. Earl Thames said in his sermon "Their works to follow them". Walk good, Helen.

A.W. Sangster is former President of the University of Technology.