After two years of delay the government ruling forces have accepted the obvious for the relocation of the asphalt plants
Statement by AKEL MP Christos Christofides after the meeting of the Parliamentary Environment Committee
They are victimizing the residents of Dali and Yeri
31 August 2022
The issue of the transfer of the asphalt plant in the community of Mitsero was discussed today in the Parliamentary Environment Committee. After two years of struggles waged by the residents of the local communities of the wider area of Mitsero and with our support, the government and the President of the Republic have at long last decided that this specific area is extremely polluted and that the bitumen plant cannot be moved there unless at least wide-ranging changes are made.
We have been supporting this position for two years now and as a result we have been fiercely attacked by the President of the ruling DISY party Averof Neophytou, as well as other DISY leading officials, that we have been pointing out these problems of moving the bitumen plant to Mitsero. There was even an organized attempt to turn the residents of the wider area of Dali and Yeri against the residents of Mitsero, under the pretext that the reason why the plant is not being moved from Dali is because there is opposition to moving it to Mitsero.
I want to point out the following: If the two years of delays and insistence by the government and the ruling party on moving the plant to Mitsero had actually sought other mutually accepted solutions on sites that were indicated far from any residential areas, we would have had the plant relocated by this time and the residents of the wider area of Yeri and Dali would not have been victimized too.
For that reason, this terrible delay and unacceptable persistence by the DISY government is not without cost to a large section of the population, but let me say to society as a whole too, after two years to accept what in our view was self-evident, namely that it is not possible in such congested area to add yet another asphalt plant.
