Koilani village sewage waste end up in Kourris dam

GREEN PARTY General Secretary Ioanna Panayiotou has urged the Ministry of Interior to take immediate action on the seeping of black water waste from Koilani village into the Koussis dam, causing water pollution and a foul smell.

“The existing situation is an issue of public health. There is a foul smell and a great danger of contaminating underground water as well as the Kourris water,” Panayiotou said.

The waste management problem, which has been around for years, is caused by a number of households at the entrance of the village who do not have septic tanks or pits.

Such pits are considered intermediary solutions until a sewage system is in place, but due to a landslide in the area many households cannot get even this basic infrastructure provision. There is thus no other way of handling their waste except letting it run off to Kourris.

The Green Party leader sent a letter to Interior Minister Neoklis Sylikiotis urging him to take action fast, setting the creation of a sewage system at the village as a matter of priority. “We warmly ask you to contribute towards finding an immediate solution to the problem through the creation of a sewage system (a project that has already been decided). In the meantime, relevant government agencies should show the necessary interest in finding a temporary, non-polluting solution, until the sewage system is in place,” a letter sent by Panayiotou to Sylikiotis read.

In his reply, Sylikiotis assured Panagiotou that the decision to install a sewage system at Koilani has been taken and that government departments are pushing for the set up of a waste treatment unit at the village. He also noted that letting sewage waste run to Kourris is illegal and that the village council should report individual cases to the authorities.

“If household waste does indeed end up in rivers it is the responsibility of the village council to call Health Services and the Water Board and track down those breaking the law,” he said.

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.