Efforts are underway to better manage and utilise the animal waste produced in places such as Aradippou, with a Greens MP arguing that it could help produce electricity and not just a foul stench.

Charalambos Theopemptou, chairman of the house environment committee, told MPs on Wednesday that the uncontrolled dumping of animal waste has long troubled the Larnaca district and legislative reform is required to address the situation. Aradippou is home to a large number of diary farms.

Akel MP Nikos Kettiros also expressed his dismay, saying that Larnaca should not be the “poor cousin”, burdened with the noise of the airport and the smell from animal waste.

“What impression does this make on tourists, whom as soon as they disembark from the airplane are subject to such smells?” he asked.

Theopemptou added that attempts were made in 2018 to tweak the legislation but the government showed no interest in the issue.

Theopemptou argued that the problem is that producing biomass for farmers is not financially viable because they can only sell the electricity to the EAC at a very low price.

The Greens MP added that the legislation will soon be changed to better utilise organic waste from households and that the biomass sites should also process household waste from the kitchens and gardens, such as tree cuttings. This would have an added benefit of alleviating the stress on the landfills in Koshi and Pentakomo.

Disy MP Prodromos Alambritis agreed that action had to be taken as the issue of animal waste in fields was “particularly bad this year… and left a bad impression on tourists”, adding that the quality of life for those in the city had also been impacted.