Güngör Fire Discussed by Bi-Communal Environmental Committee

The committee discussed issues related to the fire that broke out at the Güngör waste site in recent days, according to reports.

Politis reported that the state of alarm caused by the fire had ended, but concerns about the future remained. The newspaper added that Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot authorities were exploring the possibility of conducting joint pollution measurements following the fire.

According to the newspaper, environmental engineer and Greek Cypriot co-chair of the bi-communal Environmental Technical Committee Mihalis Loizidis told Politis that, based on the fire being extinguished within a short period and the way the incident developed, he described it as a surface-level fire.

Loizidis said this was the best-case scenario they could have hoped for.

Hrisanthos Savvidis, head of the Air Quality Division at the Department of Labour Inspection, meanwhile, sought to reassure the public on the Greek Cypriot side, saying the incident no longer posed a particular risk to human health.

Savvidis also said stations in the Greek Cypriot part of Nicosia had not recorded any exceedances of air pollution limits to date.

The newspaper reported that the bi-communal Environmental Technical Committee discussed the issue yesterday and agreed to pursue proposals to deploy one or more mobile units to measure hazardous air pollutants and establish an early warning system to alert residents on both sides.

Loizidis said some areas might need to be evacuated if pollution levels became extremely high. Referring to the Güngör fire, he said this might perhaps have been necessary on the first day of the fire, September 6, for areas located within a very close range of two to three kilometres from the waste site.

The report said members of the bi-communal Environmental Technical Committee began examining practical issues related to implementing these proposals during yesterday’s meeting.