No reserves, so smelter returns?

Trinidad seasonally gets wind and weather coming from the south __ it is not all Atlantic trade winds from the north-west; and pollution in the southland thereby already makes its way north. The idea that pollution from the proposed smelter will not affect the north of the island is a fantasy.

Air pollution and air-collected pollution coming from the South will increase. There are many other reasons why former Prime Minister Patrick Manning would have decided against the smelter: * The ground in the South is unstable and volatile, being volcanic in substrate.

* Trinidad does not have adequate predictable water resources to make smelter supply certain.

* Trinidad’s small area means nearly the whole artesian network outside the Northern Range is the affected template — and including dammed lakes and ponds.

*The proposed man-made island would stagnate waters in large areas of the Gulf.

* We still do not have the technical capacities for real environment monitoring.

Some reasons were economic: investors want devaluation ahead of development; and the smelter would make the nation beholden to the cyclic cycles of aluminium and to the cartelism going with it.

Also, the shadowy producing- cost base makes it difficult to determine just how competitive the plant would be and how to set prices — more devaluation.

Waste has to be shipped out and liquid waste has to be pre-packaged or risk storage and piping-spillage, on-land and dockside.

This PNM and certain offshore interests turned on Manning and their true feelings have started showing. With that rebellion the People’s Partnership was given its turn and now it is time for the piper to be paid.

Manning declined the smelter when the nation had reserves. Today there are no reserves and the PNM intends to put the country into debt to meet all these commitments they made.

E GALY via email