Moni residents in sea sewage battle

While Limassol households set to receive desalinated sewage-contaminated seawaterSewage is overflowing into the sea at Moni as we speak, even as plans go ahead for a desalination plant in neighbouring Monagroulli, which will be removing the salt from the same water and distributing 60,000 cubic metres of it per day to Limassol households. Sewage has been dumped in Cyprus seas for years, a practice so acceptable it has been built into how sewage treatment plants are run and no one bats an eyelid. The latest sludge to surface is at Moni, where the community has kicked up a stink, with authorities hoping to get a clear picture of its extent soon. During the holiday season, sewage treatment plants are working at full capacity due to the influx of tourists and dump excess into the sea, creating an unfortunate vicious circle. “Once tourists see this, they are not going to come again,” environmental activist Efi Xanthou, member of Volt and the Ecological Movement of Cyprus, explained to the Cyprus Mail. The impact on the Moni plant and Limassol’s sewerage system is particularly dire because it has been working above capacity, as it has had to accommodate the septic tank trucks redirected from the Vati plant, which is currently undergoing repairs. As a result, Moni is pumping sewage into the sea in such quantities that prompted the community council to take matters into its own hands. In June, the Moni community council reported the high concentration of sewage in the sea, which was by then reaching the beach, and in July the councils of Moni and Monagroulli met with the now former agriculture minister to discuss a new desalination plant at Monagroulli and raised the issue of pollution. Moni community leader Giorgos Evripidou told the Cyprus Mail that the Monagroulli desalination plant will be “pumping water from the sea and distributing it into homes”. This desalinated water, he said, will be the same water into which the sewage has been flowing for years. The plant at Moni treats sewage and produces irrigation quality water and is supposed to dump any excess only if there is a technical problem. In late July, the former environment commissioner met with representatives from the Limassol local district government (EOA) and the Moni plant to discuss the complaints and visit the unit to determine the situation first hand. The Moni plant, which is managed by the Limassol EOA, was found to be dumping a higher volume of sewage due to its inability to handle the amounts being directed there from the broken down Vati plant, which has been out of operation since 2025. Various ideas were discussed during the meeting but no deadline was announced. “There is no deadline mentioned because they have no solution,” said Xanthou. “The problem is that every time summer comes we have a humongous number of tourists coming. The Limassol plant, all the sewage plants, are working at top capacity. So, every time they supposedly do some sort of treatment and they dump it.” Xanthou said that the sewage unfortunately “ends up on the beach and they are pretending it is a problem with the ships – and it might also be a problem with the ships, so you have two sources of sewage coming onto the beach”. Environment department director Elena Stylianopoulou told the Cyprus Mail that “we have to get a comprehensive picture of what is going on and we are at the stage of investigation, which will be wrapped up soon.” She said that as soon as the complaints were made, the department launched an investigation. “We took some samples and we are taking more just to be sure we have a clear picture. On-site inspections were made at the EOA plant and our aim is to see what is happening with the quantities going in and coming out,” Stylianopoulou said. “We are treating it as a priority issue.” “I believe things will become clear in the coming days,” she added. Evripidou said the issue would “not become clear” in the coming days. “There is no other way for them to get rid of the sewage,” he explained. Xanthou said that the problem had been known for years. “But it is the first time somebody – Moni – has actually done something about it, they have actually recorded it, with footage and samples.” Evripidou has been receiving complaints about the quality of water. “Families come to my office covered in rashes,” he said. In June, the Moni community council reported the high concentration of sewage in the sea, which was by then reaching the beach While the pipeline was supposed to extend 530 metres into the sea, it ended at 120m. “Sludge is flowing into the sea as we speak,” Evripidou said. He added that the community hired divers to take videos of the sewer overflow in the sea and requested answers from the authorities. According to Xanthou, “the fact that the government is not answering indicates that they couldn’t care less about the citizens or the environmental organisations.” “The fact that they got divers to go out there – and it’s at 100m instead of the 500m that they have always said that it was – is a huge thing.” She claimed that the environment department would not do anything because it is a government facility. “It is the same problem we have with any source of environmental pollution that comes from a government source because basically they can’t fine the government, they can’t fine themselves.” “We have to report the government. It won’t be the first time. They will say they are doing something about it, but they are not,” Xanthou said. In terms of the impact of the overflow, Xanthou added that it was not just about sewage, but included any chemicals in household cleaning products. “We are violating a lot of [EU] directives, not just safety for beachgoers – it’s any sort of marine life and the ecosystem.” She said the overflow infrastructure was built at the same time as the Moni plant. There were supposed to be contingency plans for whenever it was at full capacity. But when the environment commissioner found the seabed in the area had turned a greenish colour it was clear that dumping the sewage about 200m from the coastline was not far enough to prevent it from washing up on the shore. One option discussed during the on-site visit was to fully utilise all treated water from Moni, which exceeds 30,000 cubic metres per day, by allocating more for irrigation and by storing the rest at the Polemidia reservoir. “We will bring divers again. We will test the water again. But the sea at Moni will still be polluted. They have been doing it for years and there is no way of knowing how far the pollution has spread,” Evripidou said. The next step, he said was to sue the government. “We have no other choice. We have lost all our blue flags and no one takes any notice of us […] we were informed about the desalination plant from the newspapers,” he explained. The Cyprus Mail contacted the Limassol EOA and the fisheries department for comment.