Residents of the village of Lefka on Thursday expressed their fury over construction projects “plundering” the areas surrounding the village, as well as their opposition to a planned concrete plant in the nearby village of Peristeronari.

Lefka environmental promotion association representative Munnever Ebedi led the charge, saying that after rapidly covering other parts of the island with buildings, developers’ attention has now turned to Lefka.

“The events which have occurred in our country in recent years have deeply affected us. Every day, we see that our environment and nature are being plundered and that decisions for future destruction are made. After Trikomo, Kyrenia and the Mesaoria region, eyes have turned to Lefka and its villages, which had until today preserved their virgin nature,” she began.

She added that the north’s authorities had “refused to approve” a zoning plan for Lefka and the surrounding villages for over three years and that as such, “we have been watching our agricultural lands be parcelled out and turned into construction sites every day”.

“While our breadbasket is being destroyed with the massacres of nature seen in Trikomo and Mesaoria, fresh fruit, vegetables and animal husbandry are disappearing every day in Lefka and its villages,” she said.

With this in mind, she said farmers in the Lefka region have struggled with “obstacles in the way of exporting their products both domestically and abroad” and that as such, many have given up on their trade.

“As we always say, a productive society never perishes. Here, they are tearing us away from production and destroying us,” she said.

On the matter of the planned concrete plant, she said that according to the as-yet-unapproved zoning plan, the area in which the plant is planned to be constructed would have been designated as agricultural land.

“In addition, there is an olive oil factory, olive trees, banana groves, citrus and walnut trees around this area, all of which carry products to our tables. Initiatives have been begun to remove about 13 areas, where there is a dairy farm and designate it as an industrial zone,” she said.

She added, “we know the designation of this land as an industrial zone will pave the way for other dirty industrial investments to come to this area in the future”.

“We condemn this initiative and we will continue our fight on the side of the local people and we will use all our legal rights to cancel this decision if it is made final,” she said.

Construction in the Lefka region has increased in recent years, with Lefka Tourism Association chairman Hasan Karlitas having previously spoken of a “pillage of construction”.

He added that the region does not have the infrastructure to support such developments.

“There is no infrastructure and water resources, roads, the environment and the region’s unique values and comparative advantages are not being taken into consideration at all,” he said.

He added, “the housing capacity will increase to 15,000, which means 30,000 new people living in the region.” At the last census in 2011, Kazivera had a population of 1,042.

He warned that if construction continues at current rates, “many of our values will be destroyed in the long term and will not come back, it will be too late.”

He added that his and other non-governmental organisations in the Lefka region had renewed their calls for a zoning plan to be published immediately and said “a lack of planning and control is the biggest problem in our country.”