From the very outset, Cyprus’ flagship waste treatment facility at Pentakomo was beset by official indifference and negligence, says its former manager

From the very outset, Cyprus’ flagship waste treatment facility at Pentakomo was beset by official indifference and negligence, says its former manager

The “state-of-the-art” municipal waste treatment facility at Pentakomo is “all going to waste” because the state appears to be more intent on covering up its misgivings than doing its job, according to former head of the plant Loizos Afxentiou.

Afxentiou, who was managing director of subcontractor MDT Limassol Waste Management Company Ltd, said “Cyprus screwed up big time” with waste management on the island.

“Essentially, the tendering authority lied to the tenderers and even worse they lied to the EU which funded the construction of the whole project,” he told the Cyprus Mail.

“One of the initial persons responsible is the current auditor general, who was at the time of the tenders the director of the tender board at the ministry of communications and public works,” he said, adding that he was suing those responsible.

“We will submit complaints to various EU institutions, offices and agencies for their action and their evaluation, because this was an EU-funded project and they really screwed up.”

Trucks arrived at the Pentakomo plant filled with water

Outlining all the reports, proposals and complaints made during his tenure to ministries and departments, Afxentiou said he had never experienced such indifference and negligence.

“Kition is going against the government now and Vasiliko is being investigated by the European prosecutor, which is exactly what is going to happen in the case of Pentakomo,” Afxentiou said.

“It is amazing how officials behave in a very similar, almost preordained manner, in every single case where you have a substantial contract.”

Referring to the history of the plant, Afxentiou said the tender was published in April 2014 and the contract was signed in March 2015.

Afxentiou himself became involved in the project in 2019.

Up until 2004 when Cyprus joined the EU, there was no waste management plan even though the EU outlawed landfills in 1996.

In order to conform with EU directives and regulations, Cyprus began to look into waste management in 2004.

PAPHOS

The first facility – a sanitary landfill – was set up in Paphos in 2005.

The technical adviser was Greek company ‘Enviroplan’ and the contractor was also Greek company ‘Ellactor’.

KOSHI

The second facility was an integrated waste management facility at Koshi, to serve the Larnaca and Famagusta regions.

“That is when Cyprus screwed up big time,” said Afxentiou.

He explained that the facility was supposed to follow a biological treatment method which takes the organic fraction, processes it with the presence of oxygen and produces compost to rejuvenate topsoil.

“The only problem is that you cannot get compost that you can use, and it is illegal within the EU if you are getting it from mixed waste because mixed waste is full of chemicals,” Afxentiou explained.

There was an investigation, which said that the company responsible should assume its responsibility.

“The company was Enviroplan again and the contractor was Ellactor again.”

PENTAKOMO

At that time, they were discussing building two new facilities, one in Limassol and one in Nicosia, but the latter “was scrapped”.

The decision was to go with the production of secondary fuel instead of compost, which Afxentiou said was “a valid and correct decision to make”.

“But, along with that, they wanted to build an incinerator.”

Although the EU told them to stop, they were looking for private investors to build the incinerator.

Loizos Afxentiou has all the documents archived

“Because the previous two tenders were won by the same company and the tender documents were prepared by the same company, there was a meeting at the presidential palace and the president then, [Nicos] Anastasiades, said these tenders cannot be ‘photographic’, they cannot essentially specify that a specific technology can be used so that a specific company will get it,” Afxentiou said.

However, they did not change the tender documents, but they added a paragraph saying that for biological treatment Cyprus wanted biogrind, which is what was being done in Koshi, but tenderers could use any other biological treatment method they chose.

One of the tenderers offered an unusually low price per tonne of waste and explained that they wanted to separate the organic fraction from the mixed waste using anaerobic digestors and generate biogas, which they would then burn for the generation of electricity.

Afxentiou explained that this would allow the plant to cover its own needs and sell the surplus and thus allowed the low price offered in the tender.

There was an exchange of letters which the tendering authority accepted and they signed the contract in March 2015.

No technology was changed after the signing of the contract.

The Office of the Commissioner for State Aid Control said the methods described were not in the documents and for five months they did not approve the technical method, until October 2015 when they accepted the method and gave the green light to build the plant.

“Everybody knew what they were getting. They accepted it, they proceeded, they constructed the plant, the plant had a trial run which ended early in November 2017 and operations started later the same month.”

SECONDARY FUEL

The tendering authority decided that the secondary fuel would be their responsibility to use as they saw fit.

“They had promised the European authorities who had actually funded the project that, two years before the plant operated, they would find someone to take the secondary fuel. They did nothing of the sort. […] The plant started working in November 2017 and there was no one to take the secondary fuel,” Afxentiou said.

It was decided that the secondary fuel would be stored at the plant’s sanitary landfill.

Being flammable and able to self-ignite in conditions of heat, pressure and moisture, it had to be stored under special conditions, which were costly.

“Eventually, in early 2018 the contractor was told to bury it in the landfill.”

Waste and water were a regular phenomenon at the Pentakomo plant

LICENSING

In June 2018 the contractor had submitted all the applications as stipulated in the contract six months before operation to receive licences, but the Department of Environment stopped the process due to the landfilling of secondary fuel.

“This, however, was stipulated in the contract and the Department of Environment had twice before approved it in their environmental opinions. This can only happen in a crazy state,” Afxentiou said.

In January 2019, Afxentiou was appointed managing director with the subcontractor.

“The responsibility of the plant, having passed from the interior ministry to the agriculture ministry, was passed on to the Water Development Department,” he said.

MOISTURE

An agreement was reached with Enerco, a company affiliated with Vasiliko, to start receiving secondary fuel from the plant.

However, the moisture levels of the first shipment in January 2019 were twice as high as the stipulated 20 per cent.

Despite efforts to reduce the moisture levels, they kept increasing.

“In August 2022 we reached 67 per cent moisture.”

Research indicated that Limassol waste had a high level of moisture, which was known back in 2011.

“Essentially, the tendering authority lied to the tenderers and even worse they lied to the EU which funded the construction of the whole project,” he said.

BIOGAS

In the meantime, biogas levels were low.

Experts from Energia, a huge company dealing in anaerobic plants all over the world, came to Cyprus and found “very high levels of heavy metals – chromium and nickel – inside the organic fraction”, which meant that industrial waste was finding its way into the municipal waste bins.

A report was prepared and sent to the employer – the Water Development Company – and “the employer did not respond.”

Afxentiou started looking into the issue himself and found that the levels of nickel and chromium from industrial areas “were 30, 50 and sometimes 80 times over what the employer stipulated in the tender documents.”

The matter was referred to the Environment Department, which said they checked all the licensed operators and there was no issue.

INDUSTRIAL WASTE

Furthermore, apart from the contaminated waste, “we found all kinds of stuff inside – fishing nets, pressure hoses, oil filters, anything you can imagine that is not municipal solid waste but industrial waste, even medical waste from surgeries,” which resulted in “the equipment breaking down”.

In March 2023 Afxentiou visited industrial zones himself and took photos of the bins overflowing with industrial waste.

In addition to this, the council of ministers asked for an investigation in 2019, which was completed and submitted to the then minister of agriculture Costas Kadis in February 2023.

“This report finds fault with the tendering authority and with the ministry of interior and the ministry of agriculture and the relevant services,” Afxentiou said.

“They kept this report under wraps until through our lawyers we asked for it to be made public so that we all know what went on.”

LEGAL MOVES

“The council of ministers decided in November 2023 to forward it to the attorney-general to examine it and in December they terminated our contract.”

Since then, they have been landfilling virtually everything that comes to the plant, Afxentiou said.

“So, we are suing them. The process will continue,” Afxentiou said. “We could have solved this issue back in 2019.”

Afxentiou said “what was built is truly a state-of-the-art facility. It has all gone to waste because the state is not doing its job.”

PROPOSAL

The contract specifies for the plant to generate secondary fuel, extract recyclables and landfill up to 11 per cent.

“Our proposal was based on the circular economy model. The municipalities collect the waste, send it to the plant, it is processed, we take out the recyclables, we produce secondary fuel, we generate energy and then we send it back to the municipalities.”

He said that “on top of that, because we would utilise a lot more than what we could beforehand, we estimated that only about 5 per cent would be sent to landfill, everything else would be utilised.”

“They said no in 2020.”

A second proposal was prepared and sent in July 2020. “In August 2020 they said no again.”

Afxentiou said he had photographs, documents, correspondence and laboratory reports.

“I have never seen or experienced such indifference and negligence in my life. Never,” he told the Cyprus Mail.

Afxentiou blames present auditor-general Odysseas Michaelides as being initially responsible.

“He is the one who reviewed and amended the tender documents, especially as regards the secondary fuel,” Afxentiou said.

“He is the one when the experts from the EU were telling the government to correct the tender documents and make sure they had someone to dispose the secondary fuel to, he said ‘no, we know best’.”

Michaelides later wanted to conduct an investigation, but former attorney-general Petros Clerides told him he could not as he was involved in the case.

“That is when the council of ministers initiated an investigation with the results we know,” Afxentiou said.