While Kyrenia locals have been raising the alarm over environmental destruction caused by overpopulation of the historic town, its Turkish Cypriot mayor has thrown up his arms in desperation.
Nidai Gungordu, leader of Kyrenia council, said he is in despair as the local authorities cannot do much to combat environmental problems as the town has outgrown its capacity
It is not uncommon to see locals taking to the streets in Kyrenia demonstrating over the mounting problems the town is facing.
Roads that are always blocked with traffic, rubbish, the sea polluted by sewage waste caused by the uncontrollable growth of a city that has already surpassed its capacity.
According to Turkish Cypriot activist group, the Kyrenia Initiative, the root of their woes is the harbour town was essentially planned to host 25,000 residents, it’s now home to more than 100,000 people.
Protesters say the villages surrounding Kyrenia are also suffering due to the uncontrollable and unplanned growth that the region has seen over the past decades.
Consequently, one of the biggest problems arises from the sewage system.
Locals have woken up many times to the stench of waste being spilt onto roads outside their homes. Meanwhile, there are daily such spills into the sea from pipes leading directly to the town’s coastline.
“Tourists have on several occasions called in spills from pipelines carrying, what is suspected to be sewage from the nearby hotels,” said the initiative’s representative Safiye Ozaltiner.
She noted the latest surveys have found that almost all of Kyrenia’s beaches have been polluted by sewage waste.
The coalition and the local authorities were criticized for being “indifferent” about the fate of the town and of destroying Kyrenia and its environment with their money and greed.
With uncontrolled growth of taller buildings mushrooming the sewage system is overloaded with spills occurring in major roads of the town.
Ozaltiner said the authorities had allowed developers to build 10-storey buildings when the limit was five. “This has put a serious strain on the sewage system as more people are living in these buildings.”
She said that the town is in desperate need of a master plan.
“We believe the town has no room for buildings taller than the designated five-stories. But if licenses are to be issued, a tax should be levied with money going towards the expansion of the sewage system.”
“Our town is being chocked by traffic, sewage overspills, while tall buildings cut off the air from the sea, making the town’s atmosphere unbearable at times.”
Responding to harsh criticism from Kyrenia residents, Gungordu his resources are not near sufficient to deal with the town’s needs.
He told Turkish Cypriot daily Havadis that people working for the council feel that they face a mountain of challenges. “We feel like a lightweight boxer preparing to enter the ring to fight with the heavyweight champion,” said Gungordu.
Overpopulated
He confirmed that while the town’s infrastructure is designed for some 30,000 inhabitants, the town hosts 130,000 on average, putting a strain on the sewage system, while hotels and businesses are dumping their waste into the sea.
Disputing a consensus held in 2011, showing the town’s population to be some 33,000, Gungordu said that there are some 25,000 households actively connected to the water distribution system.
“With an average household of four, there are around 100,000 people living permanently in the boundaries of Kyrenia. We know that 88% of all tourists coming in through the airport end up in Kyrenia, then at any time we can have around 130,000 within Kyrenia.”
The borders of Kyrenia have expanded, due to uncontrollable growth, to include surrounding villages like Kazafani, Karakoumi and Agios Georgios.
To upgrade the sewage system to a point where it will be able to service 80,000 inhabitants, some €7 mln will be needed.
But the council is trying to make do with money given from the central authority based on the consensus of 33,000 inhabitants.
Acknowledging that some hotels due to the lack of a proper sewage system are dumping their waste into the sea, he said the authorities should force hotels to build sewage treatment facilities on their grounds.
Gungordu said local authorities can impose penalties on hotels and tourist facilities dumping their waste in the sea, but they are not a deterrent.
He said only the environment department can impose tough penalties but isn’t doing so.
Kyrenia’s ex-mayor Glafkos Cariolou is reminiscent of the years before the 1974 invasion when Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot Kyrenia inhabitants would work together to protect the town’s environment.
“Kyrenia was the first town on the island to adopt a form of a master plan which forbade the construction of buildings taller than three stories to be built on the seafront. The relevant decisions were taken after, what we call our last mistake, to allow a five-storey hotel to be built on the coastline in 1968.”
Cariolou said that Kyrenia’s inhabitants were always sensitive over the town’s environment as it was closely tied to their livelihood.
“I remember the fishermen in the historic harbour who would be very careful about cleaning the harbour after unloading their catch, as they knew that tourists would be passing from there”.
Kyrenia always attracted quality tourism, so the town’s citizens wanted to preserve the historic features of the town.
“Kyrenia has roads that were made with shells and stones from the sea. There have always been discussions over whether they should be covered with asphalt. I am glad to see that Turkish Cypriot locals have fought off such plans and are doing what they can to preserve the historic features of the town.”
He praised groups of Turkish Cypriots who are fighting to preserve Kyrenia’s environment, bringing to the surface issues such as the dumping of sewage in the sea.
“These people are more or less fighting on their own against Turkey’s policies imposed on them, and very often convey to me that they feel that we, the Greek Cypriots from Kyrenia are not doing enough to support them,” said Cariolou.
