200 kilos of rubbish collected from seabed, beach in Dhekelia area

More than 200 kilos of rubbish, including machinery, carpets, and car tyres, were collected during a clean-up of the seabed and beach in the areas of Xylotymbou and Pyla and the British Base of Dhekelia.

The clean-up was organised at the initiative of the civil administration of SBA Dhekelia in cooperation with Base police, customs, the military administration and the community councils of Xylotymbou and Pyla with the support of Enalia Physis Environmental Research Centre, Vikings diving centre, Kimon Diving Club and the diving club of the military at Dhekelia.

“We were amazed by the volume of waste and rubbish collected from the seabed and the beach. We found plastic bags, carpets, machinery, metal, and car tyres,” George Kiteos of SBA Dhekelia told the Cyprus News Agency.

He thanked all the volunteers for joining efforts with the aim to keep the natural environment of Cyprus clean and to send the message that the British Bases are sensitive to environmental protection.

“We have an obligation to our children and grandchildren to keep the natural environment clean. We must show our sensitivity to a clean environment more generally and not just the sea and beaches, as with our actions we give a good example to future generations,” he added.

The campaigns would continue with the aim to clean up the area within the British Bases.

The director of Enalia Physis Environmental Research Centre, Marios Papageorghiou, said that his team had separated and counted the waste. The 200 plus kilos of waste collected in just one and a half hours of work was testament to how serious the problem was, he said.

A big problem were straws and other plastic items used by people at sea and which end up in the stomachs of fish, he added.