This week in history
THIS week in history last year, consumers expressed outrage after being told to pay deposits for reusable water bottles. Some retailers were refusing to exchange 19-litre plastic bottles produced before 2014 after suppliers said they would not take them back. It meant that aggrieved shoppers had effectively lost their initial “refundable” deposits and been left with the task of disposing of the older bottles.
● Also this week in 2018, the mayor of Esentepe issued a fresh warning to home and businessowners to pay more than 5,000TL to be connected to the new mains water system or face a ban on the use of tankers. Cemal Erdoğan said bill-payers had until the end of August to cough up at least 2,500TL, followed by six monthly instalments of 485TL. He was demanding the fees from those who were yet to convert to “smart” meters so they could be connected to a network supplying fresh water from Turkey to the TRNC via an undersea pipeline that was completed in 2015.
● This week in 2013, a row broke out after a group of expats were told they would be banned from using roads leading to their properties, communal pools and other facilities. The problem arose after a war of words between two opposing residents’ groups, Chelsey Village Owners’ Association (CVOA) and Chelsey Village For Change (CVFC). The CVOA, headed by its then chairman, Sandra Laine, was at odds with the newly-formed CVFC, chaired by Tony Logan, whose members refused to pay a maintenance fee of £50 per month.
● This week in 2009, Lapta Municipality admitted that its tankers could not cope with demand for water three weeks after mains supplies were halted. The municipality had promised residents that free water would be delivered to their homes but demand was far exceeding supply, said the then mayor, Fuat Namsoy, who added: “Our tanker service is receiving hundreds of calls every day and we are unable to respond to every one. We have established a queue but the people of Lapta will have to use private tankers as well.”
● This week in 1999, increases in the cost of electricity — and an end to free supplies for the military — were on the cards as the State’s Kıb-Tek authority attempted to reduce spiralling debts.
● On this very day, August 3, 2001, a car bomb containing 45 kilos of explosives was detonated in a busy west London street. The explosion happened just seconds after midnight in Ealing Broadway as hundreds of young people were leaving pubs and clubs. The bomb caused an estimated £200,000-worth of damage to businesses in the immediate vicinity of the explosion.
● On August 6, 1995, some 50,000 people attended a memorial service in the Japanese city of Hiroshima to mark the 50th anniversary of the first atomic bombing. About 140,000 of Hiroshima’s 300,000 residents died from the bombing, including those who suffered fatal radiation-linked illnesses. Everybody — and everything — within 500 yards of where the bomb fell was vaporised.