RESIDENTS living in the Dromolaxia-Meneou municipality are being assaulted by “swarms of mosquitoes” and are concerned their health may be at risk due to the lack of a sewage system.
A resident got in touch after the Larnaca Mayor Andreas Louroudjiadis fulfilled a promise to visit and clean up the Kamares area at the north end of the Salt Lake.
In that case, residents had protested over the accumulation of waste seeping into the soil and contaminating the area for years.
The area will not be served by a sewage system for another two years.
“A similar situation has arisen near the Salt Lake at Meneou, to the east of the new airport terminal, which has now turned a virulent green colour on the shore of the lake. There are sewage pipes running in this area to transfer waste between separate housing estates for joint treatment,” resident Ian Lyall-Jack said in his letter.
That area is at opposite ends of the Salt Lake and will not be served by a sewerage system for over two years. Lyall-Jack said he was worried over the “millions of mosquitoes breeding in the polluted water”.
“I live between the Salt Lake and the sea and we, and our neighbours, are unable to sit outside in the evenings...” he said.
Dromolaxia mayor Kypros Andronikou confirmed mosquitoes were a problem this year because of increased rainfall.
“We’ve been spraying ten times as much – and I mean this literally – but the spraying has not been effective,” he said.
Other officials have said that the area, because of its proximity to marshy land, is teeming with mosquitoes. But they added that the issue of the mosquitoes was not necessarily related to the issue of waste.
The latter is worrying some of the residents of four seaside complexes - including Lyall-Jack - because the waste processing plant that is meant to service 168 housing units has not been operating since last August.
The administrator of the biggest complex, the Spyros Seaside Complex, Doros Fantousis said that they wanted to see the processing plant up and running as soon as possible. “It’s a health risk,” he said.
Although the waste is being collected at regular intervals, Fantousis said it was not enough and referred to hosepipe damage “bringing out the filth and creating a health hazard”.
Others have said that maintaining and running the processing plant was too costly, especially for residents who only visited for holidays.
The Dromolaxia Mayor said he had asked the residents to start running the processing plant again since it was part of the town planning agreement granted in 2001.
However, the Larnaca sewage board has said it was willing to allow that the complexes “temporarily hook up to the Larnaca waste processing station,” said its head, Evi Theopemptou. “There was a worry that there would be pollution in the sea and the Salt Lake,” she said.
“I hope this letter will act as a timely reminder to the relevant authorities to take the same action in the Meneou area [as they did in Kamares],” Lyall-Jack said.
However, what was repeatedly made clear to the Cyprus Mail was that the issue is ongoing. Speaking about Kamares, Environment Commissioner Charalambos Theopemptou said there were almost identical problems being faced elsewhere in Cyprus.