Our View: Why are authorities doing nothing about sewerage in the sea?

It is astonishing that the Cyprus authorities are all turning a blind eye to the systematic dumping of sewerage in the sea off Moni. Even more astonishing is that the sewerage is reportedly being dumped just 120 metres from the shore, ending back at the beach, instead of 530m from the shoreline, a point which the authorities had claimed the sewerage pipeline reached. As is often the case, the scandalous negligence by the authorities is eventually exposed. Moni community leader Giorgos Evripidou brought the dumping to public attention and has backed his accusations against the authorities with concrete evidence. Apart from taking samples of the water showing that there was a high quantity of sewerage, which was reaching the beach near Moni, the Moni community council hired divers to check at what distance from the shore the sewerage was being dumped. The divers found that it was being dumped just 120m from the shore, according to environment activist Efi Xanthou. What is shocking is that none of the authorities responsible are prepared to do anything about the problem which has existed for some time but became worse since last year when the Vati treatment plant was in need of major repairs and could not be used. This resulted in tankers that have collected waste from septic tanks being redirected from Vati to the Moni plant, which was already operating at full capacity, and could not treat all the sewerage, especially as the tourist season took off. Why is the Vati plant still out of use? Fixing it should have been a top priority of the authorities but, quite clearly, it is not. In July, the then environment commissioner, under pressure from the Moni community leader, met representatives from the Limassol EOA, which is responsible for sewerage, and from the Moni plant to find a solution but nothing definite was decided, according to Xanthou. Meanwhile, the environment department is carrying out an investigation to “get a comprehensive picture of what is going on.” Its head, Elena Stylianopoulou said there will be a clearer picture in the coming days. The reality is that the problem has been known for quite some time – the environment commissioner who was replaced this month had found that the sea bed in the area had turned a greenish colour and reported this – but nothing was done about the pollution. This was proof that dumping the sewage less than 200m from the shore was the reason for the problem but the authorities did not deem it necessary to do anything. Only when the Moni community started making a noise did the authorities decide to pretend to deal with the matter. An investigation is being carried out to establish what is already known, but no solution has been proposed, because the authorities consider polluting the sea the most economical solution.