Comprehensive waste management strategy needed

 

19 April 2022, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

AKEL had been warning since last year that the Koshi Integrated Waste Management Facility (OEDA) was at its limits in terms of the amount of waste it could accept. This had been confirmed during a visit to the site in question AKEL had carried out last October.

After six months, the Anastasiades-DISY government appears to have realised this. The piecemeal measures proposed will certainly not solve the long standing problems our country is facing.

The lack of a comprehensive strategic plan for waste management leads us, with mathematical certainty, to practices of the past such as the burial of solid waste and the conversion of these units into uncontrolled rubbish pits. Practices which are both illegal and environmentally harmful.

As we have pointed out many times, the competent Ministry must proceed with the planning for modern units, with integrated systems for sorting and utilizing organic material for energy production. Units that will serve the needs of the people, who are paying the price for the government’s indifference.