Anger is boiling over among residents of Mazotos after the Cabinet decided to cancel a mobile desalination unit planned for Ayia Napa and a floating unit for Germasogeia, but not the one planned for their own community in the Larnaca district, sparking strong reactions.
The Mazotos Coastline Rescue Initiative Group had planned a protest for Saturday, August 29, which was cancelled due to bad weather. The group is now preparing new measures, to be rolled out after a meeting between community council members and Agriculture Minister Christos Senekis.
Group spokesperson Eleni Chaili told Phileleftheros residents were waiting to see what the new minister would say, since they intend to again request that the decision be cancelled.
She argued it was unjust to scrap the Ayia Napa unit because hoteliers objected, while insisting on building one in Mazotos instead, saying residents were at their limit and angry that officials were pressing ahead there. “They don’t take us into account, as if we were second-class citizens,” she said, adding that mobilisations would follow if the government’s decision does not change.
Chaili said residents wanted to be heard as citizens with rights, and that although officials describe the plant as mobile, the way it would be built would make it effectively permanent. She reiterated residents’ position, which she said is based on scientists’ views, that building the unit would cause environmental destruction in the Petountas area, describing the sea there as the village’s only asset and warning of pollution at a time when, she said, sewage problems were already affecting Limassol’s coastline.
Mazotos community leader Giorgos Dimitriou said the community opposes the creation of the desalination unit, a position that will be raised directly with the Agriculture Minister. “If the government insists on building it, we will request compensatory measures,” he added.
The community council has filed two separate court cases over the issue: one seeking a suspension order on the desalination unit’s works, and another seeking to annul an Interior Ministry order that gave the go-ahead for works to begin. Both cases are ongoing.
Under current plans, the Mazotos unit would have a capacity of 40,000 cubic metres a day, at a cost expected to exceed 92 million euros.
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