Erosion leaves Oroklini promenade collapsing near hotels

Local climate crisisLarnacaTop News Erosion leaves Oroklini promenade collapsing near hotels Diavrosi Oroklini Relevant News Erosion leaves Oroklini promenade collapsing near hotels 14 September 2026 Mainly clear Monday, 37 degree peak 14 September 2026 Boat carrying migrants partially sinks in Greece, 25 missing 13 September 2026 Natasa Christoforou 14 September 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber Ground is giving way along Oroklini’s coastal promenade, near an area packed with hotels, restaurants and houses, and the situation has become dangerous and unpredictable. Pieces of the promenade have started falling away near the outdoor gym, and the section closed by Larnaca Municipality months ago now tilts more steeply toward the sea. Residents have lodged repeated complaints with Phileleftheros over new holes opening near houses and in sections the municipality had patched only weeks earlier, prompting this newspaper to revisit the issue. Photos taken on Wednesday, September 2, back this up, showing tourists walking past holes and swimming where sections of the promenade’s lower extension had collapsed. More erosion holes have opened near houses and hotels, and in front of the outdoor gym. Larnaca Municipality is sounding the alarm, calling on the relevant state services to tackle the erosion holistically. Almost a year after the problem was first identified, no permanent solution has been found, and no authority has taken responsibility for it. Vyras called the situation dangerous, saying the deterioration was visible to the naked eye, that erosion kept worsening despite interventions already made, and that the solutions applied so far had only been temporary. He told Phileleftheros the municipality would try to repair the promenade, with funds set aside in the 2027 budget on top of corrections already made, but said it was unacceptable that erosion was advancing toward the hotels given how the responsible authorities were handling the issue. He said again that a municipality has neither the technical expertise nor the legal responsibility to deal with erosion, and that he could not understand why some refused to acknowledge the problem. The municipality is awaiting the results of a Department of Public Works study, which Vyras said could take up to two years, though some repairs would be carried out in the meantime. “If the erosion problem isn’t solved, it will most likely reappear,” he said. Coastal engineer Dr Xenia Loizidou has warned for years that breakwater placement and concrete promenades built close to the shore carry consequences, concerns she raised in an earlier Phileleftheros report last April. Scientists from the Democritus University of Thrace and a French firm specialising in coastal erosion reached a similar conclusion when Larnaca Municipality sought their opinion, finding that the breakwaters in the area had not been properly positioned. Three drownings have been recorded this year near breakwaters in the Oroklini and Pyla area: two 20-year-olds from Somalia and a 35-year-old woman from Romania, whose young daughter remains in hospital. The Larnaca Tourism Development and Promotion Company (ETAP) and Larnaca Municipality had asked the Larnaca District Administration and the Department of Public Works to take measures after the first tragedy. There was no response. Three weeks ago, the municipality placed signs in Oroklini warning bathers that the water deepens abruptly between the breakwaters. Public Works Department shifts blame to Larnaca Municipality Phileleftheros asked the Department of Public Works for its position on the erosion. It pointed to Larnaca Municipality and to a study whose timeline was not disclosed, noting that a tender is planned for services to study the protection and improvement of the coastal front in the Pyla community. “Following a request from Larnaca Municipality, the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works decided to expand the study area to include part of Oroklini’s coastal front, in order to examine whether the existing breakwaters, built during the 1990s, require improvement works,” the department said. Asked whether it intended to help find timely solutions to the rapid erosion of the Oroklini promenade, the department said the project had been designed and built by the Department of Town Planning and Housing in cooperation with Larnaca Municipality, which had chosen the site and type of construction. “Responsibility for maintaining and/or modifying the promenade does not lie with the Department of Public Works. Nevertheless, the Department of Public Works had been asked to propose measures, which were sent to the municipality but not adopted,” it said. The department was also asked to respond to scientists who suggested the erosion may stem from the placement of the breakwaters. “All public works are carried out following relevant studies, which take into account, among other things, the long-term evolution of the coastline. The main goal of the proposed works is to address erosion,” it said. 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