Areas face ‘natural disasters’ after storms
CONTINUING storms that claimed four lives last month have left a lasting legacy of danger for the public, it has been claimed.
Among many areas suffering safety concerns is Hamitköy, near Lefkoşa, where one resident told Kibris, the Turkish-language sister newspaper of Cyprus Today: “We fear a natural disaster because parts of a retaining wall holding back tons of earth have collapsed due to the foundations being washed away and it looks as if the whole lot could collapse at any time. [If it did], there could be a landslide with terrible consequences for all of us.
“Repairing the wall should not be too difficult but despite our complaints, nothing has been done for more than two weeks.”
He added that cesspits near the wall were also flooded and blocked, leading to constant bad smells and fears of waterborne diseases.
“We can’t even open our windows because of the repulsive smells,” he commented, adding that a mains sewerage network in the area was urgently needed to replace the need for individual cesspits.
Lefkoşa District Officer Hüseyin Gültekin confirmed that due to the soft texture of soil in the area, recent heavy rain had damaged the retaining wall and that some landslides had already occured there.
“A new wall needs to be built taking local ground conditions into account and a project for that is now under way,” he said.
The impact of floods which hit the Karpaz last week, affecting areas including the touristic resort of Bafra, was still being felt at Yeşilköy this week, where the main road and the Koop petrol station remained closed after being badly damaged.
Lapta Municipality sent some of its staff to assist the local authority in helping children at Yeşilköy’s primary school to safely cross a nearby village road being used by diverted traffic.
“But drivers who are unfamiliar with it are ending up in dead-ends or on forest tracks leading nowhere,” said head of the school’s parent-teacher association Ali Nalbant.
Local resident Zorba Cansoy complained of traffic now passing his house and complained that the road and petrol station remained closed one week on, adding that “if there had been a similar problem in Lefkoşa it would have been repaired long since”.
Meanwhile İskele Mayor Hasan Sadıkoğlu, claimed a major cause of flooding in his district had been stalled work to construct a new road between the villages of Kalecik and Tuzluca.
“Work stopped there years ago due to a court injunction but work has not been done to allow streams to pass under 10 bridges built to carry the road,” he said.
He urged the authorities to resolve the legal problems and complete the new road.
Rocks and debris that had fallen on to the Avtepe-Kuruova due to heavy rain have been cleared and the road has been re-opened, police said.