The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Perry Christie said that relocating residents in Pinder’s Point is not something that government will consider as no such recommendation has been made to it.

He said studies were undertaken in relation to the industrial pollution in Grand Bahama many years ago and more recently by the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2015.

“The assessments to date have all indicated that people were not in harm’s way,” Mr Christie told reporters while in Grand Bahama last week. “(A) recommendation would have to come for relocation. Clearly, when you begin to make an assessment where people are in harm’s way the implication is that you may have to relocate them. But if the results say there is no need for that because the incidences of diseases … are not related to the presence of the industrial concern, then we have to take it in consideration.”

Mr Christie said the government is concerned about industrial pollution and has brought in the best scientists it can find to conduct studies.

“We have to rely on their assessment and share that with the people concerned with the hope that they would appreciate that we have been able to study this thing carefully,” he added.

He recalled that when he was minister of health from 1977 to 1982, PAHO conducted ground and air pollution studies. He said whenever there were concerns, the government investigated them.

“And we continue to do so because people must be satisfied when it comes to their health, and we do not ever want to second change or second guess anyone,” he added.

“If you come with a complaint we have to investigate that complaint and be able to satisfy you we have done a thorough investigation. I think Dr Darville, the minister for Grand Bahama, has been engaged in such studies and he has communicated the results of those studies to the people who are subjected to conditions they were complaining about.”

Residents of Pinder’s Point, however, have rejected the findings of the health and environmental risk assessment conducted in 2015 by PAHO/WHO that there are no health risks to residents in communities near the industrial plants.

In the PAHO report, however, two recommendations were made: the installation of E-noses to monitor air quality and emissions in the affected area and a safety assessment of communities in close proximity to the plants. E-noses have already been installed and government has contracted Antea Group, a Dutch company, to conduct a safety assessment.

The Pinder’s Point Lewis Yard Environmental Committee (PPLYEC) has called on government to relocate the residents from communities of Pinder’s Point, Lewis Yard, Hawksbill, Seaco Town, Hunters and Mack Town.

The first epidemiology study undertaken by government in the 1980s had indicated that eye, gastro-intestinal and skin disorders were associated with the industrial pollution, but the report was never publicly released by the government.

Shuffel Hepburn, of the PPLYEC, said that he is not surprised by the prime minister’s “insensitivity” to the plight of the residents of the industrial basin.

“When the odours were very strong recently he and his entourage sped through the communities with his windows up, never stopping. The fact that he and his government have kept the truth from the residents for 28 years prevented many from taking proper measures to safeguard their health,” he claimed.

“Twenty-eight years ago his government did not care and his recent comments demonstrate that he still does not care. Prime Minister Perry Christie will regret those remarks and they will be a stumbling stone for him until he comes and makes amends to the poor, disfranchised residents of these communities.

“Let him say to little five-year-old Salathiel, who has lived all of his short life on Buckeye fence and cannot see well enough to attend class, that there is no health risk. Let him say that to Salathiel’s cousin who has been on kidney dialysis since the age of 18. There are many, many others that I could reference. I am fired up by these remarks from the man with the middle finger salute. I will not stop until the residents are relocated by the grace of God,” Mr Hepburn said.