Peyia Storms
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Paying the Price for Rampant Development
DEPUTIES yesterday blamed overdevelopment for the catastrophic consequences of recent thunderstorms in Paphos, which killed two people and wrecked buildings and crops.
“Nature may be slow, but it is punishing,” said DISY Deputy Costas Constantinou during yesterday’s meeting of the House Interior Committee, which met to discuss the possible responsibilities of local authorities and government services for the damage caused during the storms.
Constantinou had submitted the issue for discussion after the first storm took place – and before the deaths of George and Maria Miltiadous, who had got trapped on a bridge in Kissonerga during a violent torrent before it collapsed and carried them away.
“Unfortunately, from the time we assigned the matter for discussion until now, we have witnessed the tragic death of two people, so we couldn’t make a difference in time.”
The first storm caused £2 million worth of damage to a hotel in the Coral Bay area, as well as significant destruction across the district.
“If the storm had happened during the night, we would definitely have been mourning more victims,” said the DISY deputy of the Paphos area.
Constantinou described how he had been witness to the situation in the specific hotel, where water levels had reached one metre high and the basement had been flooded out.
“Beds and tables were taken away to sea. We found elderly hotel guests grasping on to rocks in the sea. If this had happened during the night, these people would have died,” he said.
And it wasn’t just the hotel that suffered damage. Apartments, homes and fields were flooded out. “It is years of actions that led to these results,” said Constantinou.
“Uncontrolled development, with natural rivers cemented up and the creation of insufficient drainage systems has slowly but surely led to these devastating results.”
EDEK’s Fidias Sarikas – a former mayor of Paphos – agreed, adding that like the rest of the world, the climate in Cyprus has changed due to human intervention.
He blamed the current situation in Paphos on overdevelopment and the failure by authorities to clear clogged-up rivers in time to avoid anarchy in future development, Interior Minister Neoclis Silikiotis stressed the need for a broader plan based on town-planning, environmental and social criteria.
During the meeting, Silikiotis announced that his ministry was currently in talks with Technical Chamber ETEK to appoint an independent technical committee, which will present a study concerning the situation in the Paphos area.
He added that based on the study, “we will see what measures we should adopt in the future in order to limit any problems and alter procedures that have been followed so far; and I am referring to the procedures that have been followed for the past decades and led to this situation today.”
Representatives from the various Paphos communities did not get the chance to speak during the meeting; they will be asked to attend the committee’s next meeting in two weeks’ time.
By Jacqueline Theodoulou
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2006
Sunday, November 05, 2006
When a Place in the Sun Becomes a Place in the Mud
OVER the past month of torrential rain, one could be forgiven for thinking the west coast of Cyprus is literally sliding away under the weight of a development boom.
The death of a couple, swept over a bridge by a flash flood on Monday, has highlighted a problem that many have been warning about for some time now. A few weeks earlier, a mudslide ploughed through a Paphos hotel, with guests miraculously escaping injury. Serious questions are now being asked regarding the safety of the area, and many are blaming planning authorities and construction companies for cutting corners, not following the correct regulations and, as a result, creating an unsafe residential environment.
Phil Keating and his wife Lindsay purchased a property a few months ago in the village of Pissouri. Drawn to the idyllic site, they assumed it would be the perfect place to pitch up following his retirement from the RAF. But within months of moving in, a disaster occurred that could easily have ended in tragedy.
Phil Keating has describing it as one of the most terrifying moments of his life.
At the end of their newly landscaped garden sits their newly built swimming pool. Beside the pool stood a garden shed, behind which was a 30-foot wall against a bank of earth, on top of which is a 300-year-old goat farm.
During the heavy rains of nearly three weeks ago, Phil Keating went out to the shed to check if the contents were staying dry. All was OK, so he returned to the house. Seconds later, there was a mighty crash from outside, as the 20-foot wall collapsed, crushing the shed and filling the garden with a heady mix of mud, water and goat faeces. Over £50,000 worth of damage has been caused by the disaster.
“I’ve served as a fighter pilot in the RAF for 35 years, I’ve seen action in several parts of the world and been shot at on numerous occasions, but I’ve never been as shook up as I was by the collapse of that wall. Had I been in the shed I would almost certainly have been killed.”
The problem was that adequate drainage had not been put in, causing a build-up of water in the soil, eventually causing the wall to collapse.
Finding those responsible is more complicated than one might assume. Aristo, the developers who built the property and the properties surrounding the Keatings, deny that there was anything wrong with the wall, describing the incident as an “unavoidable act of God” for which they “accept no responsibility”.
The construction manager from Aristo told the Cyprus Mail: “We designed the wall in the normal way. The water [above the house] was not directed by the authorities to the correct place. The drainage was not our responsibility, but that of the authorities.”
But Petros Foutas from the Pissouri Municipality denies that this is the case. “All the developers have an obligation to sort out the drainage. It is Aristo’s responsibility, which is in accordance with the agreement in the planning permission to do so.”
While the blame game continues, the Keatings remain in limbo. According to the couple, the goat farmer denied the developers the permission to put in the drainage. “We get on very well with the farmer, and we understand that he is fully within his rights to deny the developers. The problem is not the farmer. But everyone wants to blame the farmer.”
Aristo insist their response was immediate, and they are now building a new wall, a fact Phil Keating has acknowledged.
“The developers immediately started to rectify the situation, and the site engineers are doing the best they can in difficult circumstances,” he said. “But we still find it very hard to accept it was an act of God alone.”
An independent survey has been commissioned, the results of which will be released next week. The surveyor told the Cyprus Mail that he was unable to comment on the case before the report had been released, but he could say that any construction plans “must be approved by the authorities”, and that any new building work should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
If Aristo’s ‘act of God’ explanation is correct, then all the Keating’s can do is pray that their new wall won’t succumb to the same fate as the first.
By Joe Lewis
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2006
A Disaster Waiting to Happen
“IF SOMETHING isn’t done soon then we could be looking at another Aberfan.” These were the words of Pat Ellis, a concerned resident of the rapidly expanding village of Peyia, near Paphos, referring to the 1966 disaster in South Wales in which 144 people died when a tip of coal waste slid onto the village.
The anxious residents of Peyia are mobilising to take action against what they feel is a disaster that is not waiting to happen, but is already happening.
Their complaints are numerous. With the rapid construction – over 7,000 new homes have been built in the past five years – local people believe that the safety, aesthetics, cultural traditions and quality of life in Peyia are being seriously jeopardised.
A few weeks ago torrential rains caused a landslide, that one resident described as being like “a tsunami of mud”. The cascade of mud ripped up the roads, destroyed gardens, and put one woman’s life in real danger. “Had it not been for the help of a van driver shielding this woman from the mudslide with the side of his van, she would almost certainly have been killed,” said Peyia resident Linda Leblanc.
Peyia is a growing village nestled in the hills overlooking Coral Bay. Over the past two years, it has become one of the places on the island to have ‘that place in the sun’.
About 25 per cent of its resident population is now non-Cypriot, and at the height of the tourist season this figure rises above 50 per cent. The rapid expansion seems to propagate a list of complaints which grows as fast as the building that so disturbs the villagers.
Water shortages, crumbling roads, unstable foundations, diverted rivers, messy building sites, lack of police and post office and a deterioration in the aesthetic beauty of the village, are just a few of the things that worry the inhabitants.
The greatest concern is the possibility that, following another bad rainfall, landslide or earthquake, some of these hurriedly built properties will come down considerably faster than they were erected.
A spokeswoman for the Peyia Community Association was recently quoted as saying, “Much of the land seems to be unstable and unsuitable for safe construction of the many new multi-storey apartment blocks that are under construction in Peyia. I dread to think what will happen if there is torrential rain or, God forbid, an earthquake.”
One would think that with the possibilities such as this, the property market would have dried up as fast as the diverted rivers. But the scale of continuing construction – much of Peyia is a building site – and the countless signs advertising the sale of plots of land and new apartment blocks, seem to contradict such an assumption.
David Ball, who has lived in Peyia for 17 years, told the Sunday Mail that apartment blocks five stories high are being built on dry river beds and six-month-old landfill sites. “I feel that some of the construction on such foundations should have been stopped. In the UK, the landfills have to be monitored for 25 years before they can be built on,” explained Ball.
Stelios Cristodoulou, from General Insurance, said that the company had received around 200 claims as a result of the recent rain with the total value in the region of £250,000. Half of these came from hail stones damaging cars, and the other half concerned water damage to property.
A few months ago a protest was held by developers, complaining of delays to the issuing of building permits by the local authorities. This represents the polar opposite to what Leblanc and Ball are concerned about. “We’re not against development, but let’s do it responsibly and in a sustainable manner,” said Leblanc.
By Joe Lewis
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2006
We Cannot Mess with the Environment with Impunity
THE TORRENTIAL rain that has hit the Paphos district several times over the past few weeks has caused a host of problems ranging from mudslides to flash floods, which on Monday resulted in human tragedy.
There had been warning signs just over a couple of weeks ago, when tourists holidaying at Coral Bay were lucky to escape with a few cuts and bruises after a mudslide ripped through their hotel. A Cypriot couple was not so lucky on Monday night, when their car was hit by a mudslide and pushed over the side of a bridge – the woman’s body was found on Tuesday while rescue teams were still searching for her husband yesterday afternoon, although the chances of finding him alive seem non-existent.
Several newspapers referred to the chaos as ‘nature’s revenge’ and a punishment for the uncontrolled development that has taken place in Paphos over the past 10 years. It is true that over the past decade, the Paphos district has become a giant building site, holiday villas and apartment complexes springing up everywhere. The authorities – town planning and the municipalities – were issuing building permits with carefree abandon, oblivious to the effects that big development projects would have on the environment or to the possibility that many building sites were unsuitable.
This laissez-faire approach to development has played havoc with nature, as it ignored natural gradients, the geology of different areas, hydrological factors and the existence of creeks and river-beds through which rainwater flowed to the sea. The chopping of trees for the creation of more building plots and the construction of new roads without proper surveys has also contributed to the current problems. It is a chaotic situation that will only get worse because of the failure of the authorities to exercise any rational control and formulate a plan for sustainable land development.
While this may be easier said than done, there is no excuse for the failure of the local authorities to have adequate drainage infrastructure or to maintain and clean up riverbeds and creeks, many of which are blocked by solid waste which prevent rainwater from flowing to the coasts through the natural channels and cause the unprecedented violent torrents experienced on Monday. It seems the municipal officials think of this basic maintenance work only after disaster has struck.
It is to be hoped that nature’s warnings will not go unheeded this time. Local authorities need to suspend the issuing of all building permits for now until they formulate new rules and regulations that will take into account an area’s geology, natural gradients, rainwater channels, etc. And once these are ready they should be strictly adhered to, because as we have seen in the last few days, we cannot mess with the natural environment with impunity.
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2006
Paphos Tragedy: Who’s to Blame?
RECRIMINATIONS flew yesterday over Monday’s mudslide in the Paphos area, which killed one woman, with her husband still missing.
Politicians blamed rampant development and disregard of drainage management on authorities and greedy developers; developers pointed the finger at the authorities; and local administration washed their hands of responsibility, arguing that Town Planning never consults with them.
“In Cyprus, everything is sacrificed for the sake of fast money,” accused AKEL deputy Andros Kyprianou, who chairs the House Interior Committee.
He said local community leaders had responsibilities too, and should inform authorities if they saw unchecked development.
Monday’s torrential rains trapped a couple in their car while they were crossing a small bridge over the Arkokalami river in Kissonerga. Rescue teams have recovered the body of the woman, but her husband was still missing yesterday. The vehicle was swept a full kilometre from the site.
The general feeling was this was an accident waiting to happen, because no precautions had been taken to safeguard the crossing against the effects of heavy rainfall.
“There could definitely be criminal liability due to the uninhibited approval of planning permissions,” former Paphos mayor Feidias Sarikas said.
But Michalis Efthymiou, the chairman of the Paphos Municipalities’ Union, rejected the notion that they were turning a blind eye to the landscape.
“Local authorities have absolutely no control over laws governing construction. The Town Planning Department never consults us if a development is to take place.”
He suggested the establishment of a single body whose task it would be to keep an eye on construction projects, “so that in the future we might avoid such situations”.
And real estate developers argued they were the last rung in the ladder.
“It is not construction companies who are to blame, but the authorities. It is the lack of general planning… it’s out of control,” offered Lakis Ttofarides, chairman of the Constructors’ Association.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a hydrologist familiar with the area told the Mail that a combination of red tape and apathy were the culprits.
“Where major rivers are concerned, local authorities should ask developers to conduct a hydrological study affirming that the construction will properly divert runoff.”
Runoff is water from precipitation or irrigation that flows over the ground and into bodies of water. It can contribute to soil erosion and carry harmful pollutants.
“This is not done, partly because local authorities do not have the expert knowledge and thus don’t bother with such details,” the source said.
In a process that involves the Land Registry, the Town Planning Department, the Water Board and the municipalities, what needs to be done is often lost in the paperwork.
According to the source, the norm in built-up areas was to design drainage for “your own backyard, ignoring what happens in the wider vicinity”.
“As long as your house doesn’t flood, you don’t care about next door.”
In many cases, the source noted, it is difficult for regulatory authorities to intervene, because municipalities have almost total control of what goes on in their turf.
“By and large, it’s a question of jurisdictions,” he said.
Three years ago a hydrological survey was requested for the Arkokalami riverbed, but this came to nothing.
“The landscape in Paphos has changed dramatically in the last couple of years. Take the culvert where the accident happened. It was built around 30 years ago, when things were very different.
“But strictly speaking, the problem in this case was not development. The riverbed had become clogged with debris and solid waste – trees, rocks, etc. It needed to be cleaned up. It was obvious that the structure over the river could not cope in the event of heavy rain.
“In general, this indifference for the soil is bad business for everyone, because you can’t sweep the problem under the carpet and hope it goes away. After all, conducting a hydrological study might cost a developer a mere £1,000, plus another £10,000 for any necessary drainage works. It’s certainly preferable to the bad publicity whenever such incidents occur.”
By Elias Hazou
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2006
Why Paphos?
THE Paphos area has been struck by torrential rain three times in the past two weeks, causing major problems including the flooding of properties, flash floods, mudslides, traffic chaos and power cuts.
One local estate agent said the main problem was caused by developers building on unsuitable sites. “They buy cheap land on ravines, with water running through developments, and many buildings are not properly elevated from the road,” said Telis Christou.
“Mass constructions also cause excess mud and dust to get onto the roads in large quantities, which cause traffic problems,” he explained.
“Combine this with the fact that Municipal elections are taking place in December, with the Mayor opening up numerous streets for road works, and you get a lot of flooding whenever it rains.”
He also spoke of a lack of adequate sewage and drainage infrastructure in the town.
“Although I’m not a weather expert, I think that many storms that hit the island come from the west, meaning Paphos is first in the line of fire and is worst affected.”
Head of the Weather Services, Kyriacos Theofilou agreed, saying three inches of rain fell in certain areas of the town on Monday evening. “The bad weather was caused by a low pressure system coming in from the direction of Crete.”
The Fire Services worked for hours, mainly dealing with flooded basements.
Spokeswoman Lisa Kemidji said the force had been called out to 30 separate locations. She agreed with Christou about the unsuitability of many sites where developments have sprung up, adding that Paphos also has “a lot of wild scrub and agricultural land so heavy rain causes more damage and inconvenience”.
“The rain on Monday was so powerful it would have caused the same chaos whether it had hit Nicosia, Limassol or any other town on the island.”
Neither the Paphos mayor nor the city’s municipal engineer were available for comment, but the village leader of Kissonerga, where a woman and presumably her missing husband were swept to their death in a flash flood, hit out at developers. “The irrational development for financial gain with the creation of new communities without proper planning is to blame,” he said.
“Deforestation without any consideration for the consequences has opened the way for these violent torrents that did not exist before.”
Green Party leader George Perdikis said the party, “has been worried about the situation for a while now and met to discuss the issue after the last heavy rains two weeks ago. Unfortunately, nobody else seems to be concerned.”
Larnaca was also badly hit by the storms, with the highway between Athienou, Avdellero and Aradippou filling up with stones and mud after midnight, while a whirlwind destroyed greenhouses and uprooted trees in the district.
By Leo Leonidou 1st November
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2006
Warning Signs of Worse to Come
MY brother, Dr Christopher Solomon, a retired university professor (his quantum mechanics doctorate investigated Einstein’s Theory of Relativity), lives in a recently constructed bungalow just down the road from that burgeoning expat township of Peyia, situated high on the coastal hills near Paphos. He lives with his wife, Marjorie, a member of the ‘Women Write’ team of playwrights, and their four cats, a favourite being a silver grey Sphinx aptly named Baldric.
Fortunately, they were in a position to supervise the construction of their new home, and with the help of their excellent builders ensured high standards of workmanship in accordance with the architect’s plans, submitted and passed by the Paphos District Planning Department.
Their large garden slopes gently down towards the sea, and the previous Friday’s torrential rain failed to uproot any of their many costly shrubs and securely staked trees; unplanted areas had received an ample covering of stone chippings, laid on heavy duty membrane, thus eliminating the risk of mudslides.
But a piece of wasteland beyond became a patchwork of gushing rivulets and mud banks; mud and household rubbish retained by mounds of neglected rubble.
On my return to the capital from ma petite maison de campagne, situated at an altitude of 200 metres, having spent Sunday collecting nuts from my two walnut trees and barbecuing small pieces of pork marinated overnight in red wine, crushed coriander seed and onion (by the way, how does one remove walnut stains from fingers, and that black trapped under fingernails? Please don’t say I should have worn gloves; anyone can be wise after the event!), I checked my inbox and found an email from my brother.
It read: “Did you get any rain, as we have had loads? I reckon we’ve had about 20cm since Friday. Did you see pictures in Sunday Mail of flooded hotel just below us? I believe that many of the properties on the hills of Peyia are also going to come down in the not too distant future. They are building more and more on the steepest slopes, with little foundation and inadequate supporting walls. The bedrock is also soft and some washes away with every storm.
Developers sell property in Peyia with the slogan, ‘Peyia Dream’. It has become ‘Peyia Nightmare’; building anywhere and everywhere, a concrete jungle and no longer the pretty village it once was.
Natural drainage ravines, over thousands of years in the making, have been filled in and built on. So-called superior developments look cheap and nasty, an eyesore to any village; ugly blocks that have no gardens or trees, no colour other than grey. How they get planning permission to build such monstrosities is a mystery.
One such has its foundations sitting on a two-foot dry stone wall. In the recent rains, tons of rubble ended up on the drive of the house below.
We have a friend whose bungalow is situated feet away from a towering concrete wall; behind it, developers have built a massive block of apartments. If the wall gave way, their house would be crushed to a pulp. Marjorie reckons she can envisage such a catastrophe, even worse, a domino effect!
Of course, nothing will be done about passing such thoughtless plans until a disaster happens!
Peyia Dream, I should coco!
Bye for now, Chris.”
Every year, during summer storms, there are flash floods in the department of l’H?rault in Southern France. News broadcasts repeatedly blame planning departments for permitting overdevelopment of the region – mostly retirement maisonettes for northerners – trees are felled, land is covered with concrete and rainwater can no longer drain into the ground naturally; instead it rushes down the slopes into the valley housing estates and sits a metre high in the kitchens and lounges of these quick build homes. Residents are photographed from helicopters, helpless on roofs, in rowing boats clinging to their pets or mopping up the day after.
The Roman town of Avignon is particularly vulnerable, situated on low ground and dominated by the majestic River Rhone. At last, the local council, with government aid, are constructing dykes and parallel drainage canals.
Is Paphos District our H?rault?
Theoretically, everything is relative, even though natural disasters like earthquakes are unavoidable. But some catastrophes are, and it’s time that Planning Departments, their unseen building inspectors and the mayor of Peyia in particular, put their houses in order, at present manifesting merely token resistance to this landslide of unchecked construction. Being wise after the event serves little purpose.
My excellent cousin recommended I soak my stained finger in a mixture of lemon juice and salt. I gave him a couple of kilos of walnuts in recompense. But I was obliged to resort to chlorine; that didn’t work either. Then I scrubbed with neat washing up liquid and finally, white spirit. If only I’d worn gloves in the first place
By Hermes Solomon October 22
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2006
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