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‘We will put our children in front of the bulldozers’ - Accompong residents raise strong objections to Cockpit Country mining
September 25, 2019
A 'health hazard' to their community is what Accompong's leader, Colonel Ferron Williams, said bauxite mining will be if permission is given to carry out activities in the Cockpit Country.
He and other residents raised strong objections to bauxite mining in the area, which is rich in unique medicinal plants and is home to 40 per cent of the country's domestic water supply.
"Bauxite mining will not be beneficial to us in any way at all. If you should notice that after mining is carried out in any area, the persons living near that area always get sick. It's not just the dust nuisance alone, but a lot of people get serious illness from it ... the side effects are too many. There will be no mining in the Cockpit Country. We will join hands and put our children in front of these bulldozers. We will do this every day, trust me, because no mining will be happening here," he said.
Similar sentiments were echoed by Akeliah Wright and Toni-Ann Williams, who both said that mining activities will do more harm than good.
"Our community is crime-free and I do believe that should mining happen, it will attract a lot of outsiders, some of who may just be criminals. I don't see how this type of operation will benefit our community or even the parish on a whole. Please leave our area alone," Wright said.
Earlier this month, self-declared 'defenders of the Cockpit Country' marched on the nation's Parliament to press home their opposition to potential mining in the biodiverse region, which is a major source of water for western Jamaica.
"I have never lived in any other parish before and it's the peace and unity that keeps me here and we don't want anything to interfere with that. Everybody know everybody and even if a new person move in the community, by the end of the day we would know who they are. I have been listening the news and I heard how people from St Ann are being affected by bauxite mining and once it affects them , it's going to affect us, so I will never give the thumbs up for mining," Williams told THE CENTRAL STAR.
