THE CONFLICT between the Lymbia village council and the Interior Ministry appears to have been the result of a simple misunderstanding over the type of waste disposal plant to be constructed in the area.
The misunderstanding relates to the exact nature of the landfill, with Lymbia citizens believing that the government was planning to create a disposal plant for untreated waste (hyta in Greek), whereas the proposed plant will in fact cater for treated waste (hyty).
“There was a misinterpretation between the terms hyta and hyty,” Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis explained yesterday. “In the case of the untreated waste, the waste is processed and harmful substances are removed and the waste is buried in a process that does not affect the environment. However, in the case of treated waste, waste is treated and organic substances are used to produce energy and fertilizers. Anything that remains is also buried in a method which causes no problems to public health,” Sylikiotis said.
Despite admitting that this new development was significant, Lymbia community leader Sophocles Savva was adamant that no decision could be reached before a community meeting.
“There is a substantial difference, treated waste is a whole different thing to untreated waste.
However, this has to be explained to the people. The decision from a previous community meeting about relocating the plant still stands, now we have to inform the residents of Lymbia on what we were told by the government and we will respond. Once we are confident that we will have no problems as regards our health, the environment and the expansion of the community we will definitely step down our protest,” he said.
Savva, however, blamed the Interior Ministry for not involving the community in research and expressed his frustration at being kept in the dark.
“Decisions were taken, and environmental research was undertaken without the community being involved in any way. We had no idea what was going on and are entirely uninformed on many matters. That is why there are all these problems at the moment,” he added.
Sylikiotis said the Lymbia Council should have been aware of the nature of the disposal plant.
“They were told that the landfill was for treated waste even before I met them in December. Maybe the difference is that now the process has been explained to them with more detail,” the Interior Minister said.
And he rejected suggestions that he was trying to buy off the residents of Lymbia.
“Compensatory measures are not being offered because we are doing something that affects the health of the residents and the environment. Something that is subsidised by the EU and is in fact imposed by the Union itself, would not affect public health and the environment.
“Taking into account that Lymbia is a Green Line community, these measures have been offered to assist the expansion of the village,” he added.
The Interior Ministry also approved calls from the village council for an environmentalist to monitor the project. During Wednesday’s meeting between the Minister and the Lymbia council, the possibility for some buildings to be relocated was also discussed, but the buildings would not be moved from the initial site and any relocation would not be by more than 400 metres.
Lymbia citizens carried out a number of protests last week, culminating with a five-minute highway blockade on Sunday. The waste disposal site will cater for the whole Larnaca-Famagusta area.
Green Party Deputy George Perdikis said yesterday that the government should alter its policy on landfills.
“Given that the government is lagging far behind its EU obligations regarding renewable resources, it should use the process of biomass to produce energy as it is considered as a renewable energy source and is recognised by the EU for the percentage levels of renewable sources,” he said.
