If anywhere, Girne needs to tackle its environmental issues
I WAS catching up on some back issues of CyprusToday and was intrigued to read your story about the experts meeting in Girne for a summit on how to tackle the “environmental crisis” in the world’s poorest countries and cities ( CyprusToday, December 16).
The issues tackled were described as problems related to water, sewerage and waste disposal, and your article told how the 10 “environmental sanitation experts” who took part in the summit are to embark on a “Looking For Clues” tour of African and Asian cities to try to identify new ways of dealing with such difficulties.
Yet surely the experts could have found “clues” and begun their search far closer to “home”? If ever there was a case study of how factors such as poor planning, population growth, climate change, outdated and inadequate infrastructure, and lack of public awareness and education can combine to have a detrimental impact on the environment, it is Girne — and indeed the problems that this town faces are mirrored elsewhere around the TRNC.
Overflowing bins and cesspits, random fly-tipping, water shortage, drainage systems regularly unable to cope with the flow of either sewage or heavy rainfall — they are all here in spades. Not to mention the roads illsuited to cope with the everrising levels of traffic. (And don’t get me started on road safety, or the lack of it . . .)
Was it mere coincidence that the meeting was hosted in Girne, I have been asking myself since reading the article.
I wonder if any of the experts noticed, or were made aware of, just how much information they might have sourced right on their summit doorstep, before having to go as far as Africa or Asia?