Following factory article SN should find out about cement manufacture issues

Dear Editor,

As one of the more respected outlets of public information in Guyana, your newspaper can take opportunities to look further into promotional releases by commercial interests. For one example, your recent report on a nascent factory in Berbice left your readers wondering about several issues in cement manufacture, noticeably not covered in your article.

We have always understood that Guyana must import cement because we have no easily accessible deposits of limestone. It would be for you a newsworthy breakthrough if the new factory owners have discovered either local substitutes or sources for calcium-rich raw materials, or cheap ways to import them.

The process to make cement has huge energy needs for heat, well beyond those for materials transportation and handling.

There is a limit to the net energy contribution of burning waste tyres and plastics, considering the high costs of collection and of removing pollutants from the chimney gases and solid residues.

The question arises of what happens to those rubber and plastic wastes if and when Guyana becomes an oil and gas producer, allowing cheaper pollution control. The press can encourage our EPA and its political directorate to be watchful on these matters.

In the midst of controversy over media inclusion of public service announcements, enforced by law, I know that you, Editor, share a vision of independently serving the public’s need for truth and fairness in information.

May we all hope that your paper will be more thorough in the handling of news generated to serve commercial and political purposes.

Yours faithfully, Gordon Forte