ONE OF the owners of a foundry near Ergates village, suspected of damaging the health of the villagers with lead, cadmium and dioxin in its smoke emissions, yesterday agreed to close it for five months, following violent protests on Monday night against its continued operation.
Marios Petrou, one of two owners of the Marios & Andreas foundry, had months ago pledged to close the foundry while British experts hired by the Health Ministry conducted tests to see if its smoke was harming the health of Ergates residents.
Petrou had been promised government compensation for the loss of earnings during the shutdown. He again agreed to close the foundry during an emergency meeting yesterday called by Nicosia District Officer Andreas Papapolyviou.
Afterwards, Papapolyviou said the foundry owner will get compensation "based on rightful estimations".
The emergency meeting followed a violent protest by Ergates villagers against the continued operation of the foundry. Spurred by a doctor’s diagnosis of a young Ergates resident with breathing problems earlier that day, approximately 400 Ergates villagers forced their way into the foundry, breaking windows and knocking down signs.
Nearby cars were also damaged before protesters dispersed at about 11pm, when the police Rapid Reaction Unit intervened.
Earlier in the day, Papapolyviou said he sympathised with the residents’ concerns, but stressed that no one should take the law into their own hands.
"The Council of Ministers has discussed this issue three times. There were decisions at three different meetings, and most of the decisions were implemented," Papapolyviou said.
"The owner of the foundry did not implement the agreements we made, and which he agreed to. And the most basic agreement was for him to suspend the foundry’s operation for as long as it took for these investigations to be carried out. This period was about six months, and he would have been completely compensated for… any loss."
Papapolyviou said the owner’s initial refusal to close the foundry was irresponsible, "since there are strong suspicions that health problems (already found in Ergates villagers) are probably being caused to the residents".
But he added that the foundry could not be forced to close down based on a Council of Ministers recommendation only, and that its owner was bound only by his own agreement.
Representing the Ergates residents, Maria Michael said yesterday that Monday night’s violence had not been planned, but could not rule out similar action again.
"We have used all the civilised measures anyone could use," she said. "Seeing the situation getting worse instead of better made this type of action expected."
Monday’s violence was not the first public protest by Ergates residents against the foundry. Several times they have closed schools, held marches, called work stoppages and blocked roads to call attention to their plight.
Two series of tests done by public health physician Dr Michalis Voniatis showed Ergates residents had five times the cadmium and nearly three times the lead in their blood as Nicosia residents. Voniatis and other physicians also suspect cancer-causing dioxin is in the foundry smoke and has poisoned the villagers, and the air, soil and crops grown there — crops that are consumed in Cyprus and exported to Europe.
His tests also showed Ergates villagers’ have far higher cancer rates than the Cyprus average, and that 33 per cent of village children having breathing problems, all of which he blames on the foundry’s smoke.
Health Minister Frixos Savvides has pledged that if his experts conclusively prove damage has been caused to the residents’ health from toxins in the foundry’s smoke, he will close it down.
Similar complaints have been voiced by residents of Omonia village against the Nemitsas foundry outside Limassol. Government sources say the Council of Ministers has approved funding a similar study of the Omonia villagers to see if the Nemitsas foundry has damaged their health.
