LARNACA Mayor George Lycourgos pledged yesterday his city and its Development Council would sue officers of the government in the Supreme Court for alleged deception and irregular and illegal acts in building the Larnaca desalination plant.
And he vowed to continue pursuing his court action to halt the plant’s construction.
Lycourgos claimed government officials had been deceitful in trying to manipulate public opinion in the middle of the island’s worst-ever drought in favour of building the desalination plant, the island’s second, outside Larnaca.
The plant, which is under construction south of the city near its international airport, is slated to begin producing 40,000 cubic metres of desalted water daily by early 2001, according to the Water Development Department.
Larnaca District Court yesterday postponed until tomorrow a hearing on the injunction Lycourgos obtained to halt work on the desalination plant.
The original injunction did not stop construction, however, since it ordered the government – not the contractor – to stop work, a technicality that has permitted the building to continue.
Agriculture Minister Costas Themistocleous yesterday declined to comment on the injunction, noting it was a matter still before the courts.
Themistocleous has said the Larnaca plant is critical for meeting the island’s water needs, since reservoir storage has fallen to dangerous levels as the drought enters its fifth straight year.
Lycourgos’ pledges yesterday followed House Environment Committee revelations on Tuesday that Themistocleous ordered work begun on the Larnaca facility before obtaining the requisite Town Planning department permit and title to the actual site.
The state has since acquired both.
Lycourgos claimed no environmental study was done to ascertain how the desalting plant would affect the local ecology before Themistocleous went ahead and ordered work begun on it.
Rather, he said, the site was chosen "based solely on financial criteria," which he said could be a "dangerous" environmental precedent.
He noted the same area south of his city already harboured Larnaca Airport and the district’s sewage treatment plant. He said this was enough, and that no other industrial facility should be allowed in the area.
Lycourgos said all that his city wanted to do was "to preserve the salt lakes." They and their adjoining wetlands are refuges for migratory birds.
He noted that the natural beauty of the area was protected and controlled under a plan approved by the Council of Ministers, and applied through a special committee presided over by the Environment Service of the Themistocleous’ Agriculture Ministry.
Lycourgos said the environmental study that should have been conducted before the desalting plant was begun should now be done by an independent organisation, and not by the contractor.
He said his administration and the Larnaca Development Council would meet on February 21, ahead of a protest planned for the next day by Larnaca residents outside the House of Representatives.
