A SEWAGE pipe in a Coral Bay village has been leaking for five years and nothing has been done about it, according to a local resident who said he had to move out because of the stink..
The residents of the Aristo village in the Peyia municipality are at their wits end about the problem, said Walter Alfrey.
“I’ve had to move out because the stink is so terrible. The problem has escalated to the point where somebody is going to get a disease. The foul liquid is full of mosquitoes and rats. It is disgusting,” he said.”
Alfrey said the fractured pipe runs between an underground chamber and the sewage plant. The chamber is also broken and leaks sewage into a nearby ditch intended to disperse rainwater. The leak has caused puddles of sewage to collect across a green area intended for public use, and restricts the use of a public path.
“It seems that there is a conspiracy between Aristo developers and the municipality to pass the buck from one to the other. Nobody is doing anything; nobody can tell me what’s going on. The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. I cannot get anyone to admit responsibility for this problem,” he said.
He said the problem started five years ago when more houses were built nearby. The lorries carrying the cement drove across the green area on the way to the building site and it is suspected that their weight was responsible for fracturing the 6-inch thick concrete of the sewage chamber. A meeting was held on site six weeks ago but no action has been taken.
Alfrey expressed his fury at Aristo. “Is this the sort of service they give? I can’t use my pool, I can’t use my garden. I haven’t done anything wrong. Why am I being punished?”
Concerns are rising that any rain could have disastrous effects. “The chamber is already full, if there is one shower it will overflow and flow down to the Coral Bay beach and hotel area which is only 150 metres away,” Alfrey said.
Alfrey also complained that a ditch was filled with rubble three years ago, causing a nearby hotel to flood. After repeated insistence the ditch was emptied, but the rubble was dumped at the side of it, he said. “It is supposed to be a green area but instead it’s a rubbish dump full of rubble and puddles of sewage.”
A representative for Aristo developers denied that the company had any responsibility for the problem. She said: “In this project we don’t manage the green areas. A different company is charge of their management and maintenance. The community board of Peyia also handles most of these issues and complaints. This is a government issue.”
Neither the Peyia municipality nor the Paphos Sewerage Board were available for comment yesterday.
