Kadis in coastal protection call

Agriculture Minister Costas Kadis on Friday stressed the importance of cooperation between the state and civil society for the effective protection of coastal areas and the environment.

The minister attended an event at the Yeroskipou beach in Paphos co-organised by the Akti Project and Research Centre, Yeroskipou Municipality and the environment department to celebrate the Mediterranean Coast Day that is marked on September 25.

According to Kadis, 50 per cent of the population in Cyprus lives in coastal areas, whereas around 200 million people throughout the EU live in such areas.

He noted that it is very important that these areas which are, he said, “very productive, vulnerable and characterised by great natural wealth” are protected and preserved as best as possible. For that reason, he said, events and actions that highlight the importance of coastal areas are very important.

The minister praised the cooperation between local government, state services and civil society social stressing his ministry’s determination to everything in its power to protect the coastal areas that are under a lot of strain in recent decades. He said cooperation by everyone was necessary for this.

Kadid also said that the #potavristou programme, ran by Akti, “has brought impressive results.”

“Two years ago, 5.5 tonnes of plastic were collected under the programme and last year 12 tonnes,” he said, pointing out that this year he would have preferred that there would be no rubbish on the beaches that needs to be collected.

Head of Akti, Xenia Loizidou said they celebrated this year’s Mediterranean Coast Day by cleaning Yeroskipou municipal beach and seabed with the participation of schools of the area and a visit by boat to the Moulia sea protection area.

She also said that Akti, in collaboration with the Municipality of Yeroskipou, implements the on-the-go recycling actions with the installation of specially designed recycling PMD bins (plastic-metal-tetra Pak) on the coastal pedestrian path as well as the installation of fish-shaped recycling points on the beach.

Of those two infrastructure actions, alone, she said 60.4 tonnes of recyclable waste have been collected in the last two years. In the first eight months of 2021, 20.2 tons of recyclable waste were collected, which would either end up in the mixed garbage or at sea, she added.