The Technical Environmental Committee has been “on high alert” since the day the fire broke out at the Koutsoventis landfill, in the Turkish-occupied part of Cyprus, and its co-chair, Michalis Loizides, told CNA that he has been in contact with scientists specialising in the field, who are monitoring the situation, but the options are very limited.
“We have a fire that is still burning. Unfortunately, fires in garbage dumps are not just about what you can see burning on the surface. The good news is that this is a surface fire; it is not deep within the landfill, but even so, it cannot be brought under control within a few hours” he said.
It will take a few days, perhaps even weeks, to contain it and reach a point where the smoke emissions stop, he said.
Loizides noted that this particular site has been funded as a sanitary landfill using EU funds, and the EU office that monitors funding to the Turkish Cypriots ‘could intervene and support structural improvements to ensure that there is no possibility of such situations recurring.’
The EU could also state that the protocols are not being adhered to and demand that the Turkish Cypriot side undertake a new phase of planning and rectifying the problem, in which the EU could also be involved, he added.
Michalis Loizides proposed the development, on both sides, of an early warning system for residents, so that in such cases they can monitor the concentration of specific toxic, hazardous gases – and, when these exceed a threshold that could affect the general population, a warning could be issued advising people to stay indoors, “as we do with dust.”
He added that if the phenomenon is severe, then areas should be evacuated; noting that, in the case of this particular fire, this might have been necessary on the first day of the fire (on Sunday) for areas very close by, within 2-3 km of the rubbish tip.
These simple measures, which we could implement on our own part, would be quite significant for the public, he said, noting that many people “are trying to work out what they can do themselves to protect their families.” Here, he noted, the issue of cooperation with the Civil Defence of the Republic of Cyprus also comes into play, saying that this presents a ‘brilliant opportunity to create better structures for keeping residents informed.’ Since we have the early warning system, he continued, there is no reason not to link it to such incidents as well.
Loizides said that it might take weeks to contain the fire because no one knows how deep the thermal damage extends or what conditions are required to extinguish it, given the extent of the damage caused at the rubbish tip. He also said that there will be an effort using bulldozers and other equipment to extinguish the fire. He pointed out, finally, that similar fires in Kotsiatis had raged for weeks.