Bosai directed to submit plans for alleviating the problem by month end
The Chinese Bauxite Company Bosai has been given up to the end of this month to provide the local Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with firm proposals for alleviating the worsening problem of dust emission from its bauxite operations at Linden.
EPA Executive Chairman Doorga Persaud told Stabroek Business in a telephone interview earlier this week that at a recent meeting with the Chinese company over the dust emission problem the Agency mandated that Bosai submit a precise plan with time lines for addressing the problem which has given rise to increasing concern among residents of the Linden community.
The directive from the EPA comes in the wake of a recent disclosure by a senior Bosai official that the company will be seeking to produce more than 500,000 tons of bauxite this year. According to Peter Benny, Bosai’s Industrial Relations Manager increased bauxite production will inevitably mean greater emission of bauxite dust.
Noting that the EPA was “concerned” over the problem of dust emission from the bauxite plant Persaud told Stabroek Business that Bosai’s contract to engage in bauxite production included environmental considerations which the company is obliged to address.
Last week Benny told Stabroek Business that Bosai had already commenced work on the short-term measure of lengthening the stacks that emit the dust. He said that the company had also commenced work on a feasibility study preparatory to the creation of a dust shield which is scheduled for installation in 2009.
Concerns over possible links between the bauxite dust emission and chronic respiratory problems among Region Ten residents, particularly those residing at Wismar, have heightened with the takeover by Bosai of the Linden bauxite operations from the Omai Bauxite Company, a development that has coincided with increased bauxite production. An informed medical source at Linden told Stabroek Business that while there was no scientific evidence to suggest that there was any link between the dust emission and serious health problems at Linden, respiratory problems, including upper respiratory tract infections were common among residents.
Stabroek Business understands that a study conducted in 1993 found no evidence of a link between the bauxite dust and any serious health problems, however, another medical source told this newspaper that another study may now be necessary “if only because of the increased volume of bauxite dust.
Regional Chairman Mortimer Mingo told Stabroek Business that the Regional Administration had been involved in stakeholder discussions with Bosai company officials over the dust problem and that the company had undertaken to take initiatives to alleviate the problem. “We are cautiously optimistic that those measures will be put in place,” Mingo said.
Meanwhile, the promised medical intervention by the company in the Wismar area where the dust problem has been severe is scheduled to come on stream at the end of next week. Stabroek Business has been told that the once-a-week treatment of residents affected by respiratory problems will be conducted at the Wismar Health Centre by medical personnel recruited by Bosai.
