IN THE END the Minister of Interior Neoclis Sylikiotis gave in to the NIMBY protesters with regard to the creation of a solid waste depot close to Ormidhia village. The original idea was for all household rubbish from the surrounding area, which included Paralimni and Ayia Napa, to be taken to the depot from where it would be transferred to the Koshi treatment plant.
But on the day in early September the bulldozers and diggers arrived to start work on the depot, protesting Ormidhia villagers stopped them, insisting that they did not want the depot in their backyard. Sylikiotis agreed to call a halt to the work and arranged to meet representatives of the communities a few days later. When he arrived for the Larnaca meeting an angry crowd greeted him with jeers and verbal abuse, demanding that the project was abandoned, because the depot would pose a health hazard.
On Tuesday, two months after work on the waste depot was to commence, Sylikiotis announced his ministry’s new plans. A smaller solid waste depot would be built in Ormidhia (66 per cent smaller than originally planned) while a bigger one would be created close to the Ayia Napa-Paralimni area, at significantly bigger expense to the taxpayer. This is assuming that the municipal councils of Paralimni and Ayia Napa give their respective consent to the new plan.
But what if their residents oppose the building of a waste depot in their area, stop the bulldozers from starting work and demand a meeting with interior minister, whom they will jeer and abuse on his arrival? Would Sylikiotis then go back to the interior ministry technocrats and ask them to come up with a new waste management plan for two small depots in Paralimni and Ayia Napa and a bigger one close to another village? This is what he should do for the sake of consistency. If he allows Ormidhia residents to bully him into changing his plans then he should do the same for those of Paralimni or Ayia Napa, who are not second-class citizens.
Sylikiotis made a big mistake in giving in to the NIMBY protests of the Ormidhia residents and drafting new plans. He showed a lack of resolve and judgement. There should have been no back-pedalling on this issue and he should have defended the ministry’s original decision instead of changing it at the first sign of opposition. He should have repeated the reasons the specific location was chosen, the economic rationale behind the decision and explained all the precautions that would have been taken to ensure there were no health risks to residents.
Pandering to NIMBY protesters is the worst thing a minister could, as Sylikiotis is already finding out.
