PUPILS at a Limassol primary school neighbouring a foundry yesterday refused to enter their classrooms for two periods, protesting about the unhealthy conditions created by the foundry’s operation.
The area’s residents, near Zakaki, have demanded the closure of the Nemitsas foundry for years because they say it gives them health problems.
The residents also claimed that a health report last year, which cleared the foundry, had been a whitewash, and accuse the government of criminal negligence.
But yesterday the pupils hung black fabric on the school fence and did not attend lessons for two periods in protest at the pollution in the area.
The residents said there was an unbearable stench coming from the foundry every time it was in operation.
Parents accused the authorities of indifference yesterday, arguing that nothing had been done despite a Cabinet decision that the foundry’s owners should take measures to rectify the stench.
Parents’ Association Representative Kyriacos Valanides said the situation was unbearable, adding that last week the choking atmosphere had caused some pupils to faint.
Valanides said the residents were going to take strong measures, but would not disclose any further detail.
A foundry in Ergates near Nicosia was promptly closed down by the government two years ago, after tests showed its emissions were above acceptable levels.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
