VILLAGES down-wind of the Vasiliko cement works are protesting about the factory’s “suffocating, repulsive and unacceptable impact”.
The cement works last month proudly unveiled an initiative to burn “green coal” to power the plant: chopped up tyres, rubbish and meatmeal. Factory bosses say emissions tests have given the alternative fuel experiment a clean environmental bill of health. But local communities beg to differ.
In a letter to Commerce and Industry Minister Nicos Rolandis released yesterday, the co-ordinating committee for Vasiliko area villages spoke of “noxious discharges” from the factory, citing June 14 as a particularly bad day. “There were thick clouds of fumes, combined with fearsome noise and disgusting smells, making for a suffocating, repulsive and unacceptable impact on the surrounding area,” the co-ordinating committee informed the Minister.
The villagers spoke of “continuing use of inappropriate and improper materials” at the cement works. “These material include sewage from Limassol, meat powder from abattoirs, tyres from the automotive industry, industrial and household rubbish and other dirty materials,” the protest letter stated.
The Vasiliko plant has a bad reputation for spewing cement dust and fumes over the surrounding area but cement works bosses insist the have now cleaned up their act and are now even helping solve waste management problems through the “green coal” initiative.
According to local communities, however, this is all just ‘green-wash’. They charge that the government has consistently turned a blind eye to the Vasiliko plant’s environmental record.
“It is the state’s disinterest which allows the situation to continue. Once again we strongly protest and request you to take real and decisive action to monitor and control emissions from the Vasiliko cement factory,” the villagers told Minister Rolandis.
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