Larnaca fed up of being ‘dumping ground’ for every inconvenience

Larnaca municipality and local communities on Tuesday expressed their opposition to the relocation of the two Dali asphalt plants to the coastal district.

“Residents are tired of Larnaca being the dumping ground of Cyprus and we can no longer continue at this pace,” Larnaca Mayor Andreas Vyras told the Cyprus News Agency.

Located in the district are also the Vasiliko energy centre and the Koshi waste disposal and management plant (OEDA). Oil and LPG  storage facilities previously on the Larnaca coast are also moving to Vasiliko, “another area of Larnaca” the mayor added.

Larnaca cannot be the easy solution for the state to transfer every inconvenience, Vyras added.

The decision to relocate the plants came after multiple complaints from Dali residents concerning air pollution as the plants are built near a residential area and the community’s primary and nursery school. The deadline for the relocation of the plants was set in February, pending the completion of an environmental impact assessment.

But “studies often show what we want them to show,” Vyras explained. “If these facilities were innocent then there would be no need to move them from where they are located,” he added.

Vyras said Dali residents were right to complain and said the situation was unacceptable. “However, we cannot move this unacceptable situation to another residential area just to move the problem,” he said.

A community is located about 300 metres away from the designated point for the asphalt plants’ relocation, said the head of an initiative group against the asphalt plant in Koshi/Aradipou, Ermis Christodoulou.

“All the sewage will end up in the reservoirs of Aradippou,” Christodoulou said.

The municipality met with the agriculture ministry multiple times to discuss the plants’ relocation to Koshi without any results.

Aradippou’s mayor Evagelos Evagelides reiterated that the region was already burdened with pollution due to other facilities “which means we will have the same problems that currently exist in Dali and other regions”.

In his statements, Lymbia community leader Michalis Georgiou said the relocation was being carried out despite written decisions that no other heavy industries will be transferred to the area.

“We will not let that happen,” Georgiou said.