IRRESPONSIBLE water management, ineffective waste management and budding recycling policies, topped by a lack of a public and private environmental conscience were the elements of the 99-page 2007 annual report of the Environmental Commisioner Charalambos Theopemptou.
Yesterday he sang his swansong at the Presidential Palace as his tenure which started on 1 July 2006, ends on February 29.
His duties include: preparing reports which act as the bedrock of the government’s environmental policy, submitting suggestions and proposals to the relevant Ministries, and conducting on location inspections in cases of gross environmental misconduct.
His office is under the direct supervision of the presidency and he is answerable to the President who appointed him.
Indeed, this is why he chose to present his report to the media at the presidential palace, “a move which has no political overtones whatsoever, in spite of the fact that we are in an election season”, he said.
In the presentation he focused on the water problem, waste management and environmental responsibility.
He identified the breaking up of responsibility between government services, which in turn pursue introverted policy, as the main reason why the necessary co-operation and planning has not yet been achieved on the water problem.
“Over a third of the municipalities do not have water metres, which means that there is a lot of water which is gone to waste unaccountably,” Theopemptou announced.
The Tala area in Paphos hosts approximately 1,000 swimming pools, “which shows that a large amount of water is used by swimming pools.”
Statistics indicate that 300 litres of water evaporate from an 8m by 4m pool per day, while the average per capita consumption rate in Cyprus is 200 litres per day.
Waste management is an area of increasing concern for the island.
“The dump at Kotsiatis is 50 metres deep, while there are a number of illegal waste disposal areas dotted throughout the island.”
The waste should not be burnt, not only because of the foul smell they give off when burning, “but because incomplete combustion releases compounds into the atmosphere which are extremely harmful to public health.”
Plastic bags which are not biodegradable eventually find their way out to sea where they cause sustained damage to the ecosystem, while construction waste ends up littering rural areas.
“It has been calculated that more than 10,000 road trips will have to be conducted if we are to collect all the waste from the countryside”, Theopemptou said.
Road vehicles and the tyres they consume are also a worry.
“A collection and charge for used tyres should also be put into effect in September 2008, so that we can start dealing with the 650,000 tyres that end up as waste every year,” Theopemptou added.
He also advocated the recycling of unwanted cars, as opposed to auctioning them off.
After they are recycled they are sent to abroad to be turned into construction material, which is then sent back to Cyprus for use.
“We found 800 cars abandoned in the Nicosia district alone, of which only 300 were later claimed by their rightful owners.”
Individuals can do a lot at a negligible cost to help the environment by tending after their own habitats.
Some of the suggestions for environmental houses made by the commissioner include: installing full-flush and half-flush toilets which use six and three litres of water respectively, as opposed to older toilets which used more than eight litres per flush, and decorating gardens with plants that do not need a lot of water (xeriscapes).
“At the end of the day, I am happy with the overall result of my work, although there are a few projects under way whose results will be apparent in the near future.
I hope that the office of the European Commissioner will continue to exist after the elections”, Theopemptou concluded.
Prior to the presentation, President Tassos Papadopoulos commended Theopemptou on a job well done.
“He has done an excellent job, despite the difficulties inherent in his work.
“The government has implemented most of his suggestions.”
At a meeting between the two earlier yesterday, progress was made on three issues.
First, mobile phone antennas will no longer be hidden from public view when these are installed near schools. Camouflaging or covering them for aesthetic reasons had been a condition for their instalment in these areas, allowing an inordinate amount to be installed, thus affecting the environment in which the schools operated.
Second, there will be a speeding up of the process needed to install photovoltaic systems in residencies which make more efficient use of solar energy.
Previously people were discouraged because it took them over a year to get a licence to install the system, whereas others applied to banks for loans to install them but instead spent the money elsewhere.
Both these factors will be dealt with so as to give people incentives to install the systems at home and shelter the banks from being misled.
Third, new measures will soon be implemented on dealing with mounting electrical and electronic waste such as including clauses in government contracts forcing companies to describe how they intend to deal with the waste they produce.
