The north’s chamber of environmental engineers on Monday sounded the alarm over the prospect of fires breaking out at the north’s landfill in Koutsoventis due to increased temperatures over the summer.

The chamber’s chairwoman Sibel Paralik said the landfill had been designed for 30 years’ worth of storage in 2013, but is now almost full, and that rubbish is now being stored in an “atrocious” manner there.

“Due to the failure to reduce waste, reuse, or recycle it, the landfill will be closed very soon. It has been filled already and it is approaching the end of its life,” she said.

On the prospect of fires, she said, “it has been observed that the waste dumped in the immediate vicinity of the landfill in recent months has burned together. With the arrival of summer, these fires will continue and grow exponentially.”

As a result, she called on the north’s authorities first to deal with the problem at source, by reducing the amount of waste produced, encouraging consumers to reuse materials and to recycle. 

In addition, she said the ‘government’ and municipalities should allocate budgets to deal with the issue and implement longer-term plans to better manage waste.