By Martin Hellicar
TOXIC waste problems in Cyprus are not limited to the government-controlled areas. The occupied north, according to reports in the Turkish Cypriot press, has its own legacy of hazardous waste pollution – radioactive at that.
As a government official admitted to the Cyprus Mail last week, thousands of tonnes of toxic waste are every year dumped into unsuitable landfill sites in the free areas – posing a serious pollution risk and threat to human health.
But the situation would appear to be even more worrying in the north, if reports in Kibris newspaper are anything to go by.
The daily stated that when the US-owned Cyprus Mining Company (CMC) abandoned its workings at Karavostasi during the 1974 invasion, it left behind acid wastes but also waste monitoring equipment containing radioactive Caesium 137.
Turkish Cypriot nuclear scientist Mehmet Ozerkman, who used to work for CMC, told the paper that 12 vats full of acid at the mine ore smelting site contained 14 monitoring devices which had been emitting radioactivity ever since the site was abandoned.
Forty Turkish Cypriots who used to work at the Karavostasi site are undergoing medical tests to see if they have developed cancer from exposure to the radioactivity at their former work place, the paper reported.
Karavostasi is in the Morphou district, only about three kilometres from the Greek Cypriot village of Ayios Nicolaos.
It is not clear whether radioactive emissions from the abandoned site could be affecting the government-controlled areas, but Caesium 137 is easily dispersed in groundwater or in dust.
Kibris followed up its radioactive waste report with revelations about 50 barrels of cyanide it said had been buried at the old CMC mines at Lefka, 2km away from Karavostasi.
The paper said the deadly waste was buried as long ago as 1945, when CMC decided to stop mining for gold at Lefka and process the available ore for copper instead. Cyanide is used in extracting gold from ore and CMC’s supplies were surplus to requirements after the switch to copper. So the US- owned company decided to dispose of the waste underground, the paper stated.
It is believed the barrels of waste were dumped at two sites in the buffer- zone. A lake near Karavostasi has been so contaminated by seepage from these barrels that a Turkish Cypriot shepherd lost all 200 of his sheep when he made the mistake of letting his flock drink from it in 1995, Kibris reported.
The head of the government Environment Service, Nicos Georgiades, could not be contacted for comment on the matter yesterday.
