A negative opinion from Cyprus’s Department of Environment has frozen plans to construct breakwaters and perpendicular groins along the coastal front from Kiti Cape to Larnaca airport area.
The decision, dated 14 January 2025, recommends that the Public Works Department submit alternative solutions for areas with severe erosion or unstable coastal fronts, based on Nature-based Solutions principles.
The alternatives must ensure no direct or indirect impact on significant species and habitats in the wider study area, and should reflect modern coastal engineering and technological approaches to coastal protection, biodiversity and climate change impacts.
The Public Works Department had submitted a Strategic Environmental Impact Study for protecting 6.5 kilometres of coastline from erosion. However, the Department of Environment, under deputy director Elena Stylianopoulou, concluded the proposed plan would cause “significant, direct and irreversible impacts”.
According to the Special Ecological Assessment Report, the area hosts 10% of all sand dune habitats across Cyprus’s entire Natura 2000 network. Any loss would put the Republic of Cyprus at risk of violating its European obligations.
The study showed the construction would destroy 1,603 square metres of Posidonia oceanica meadows, which form the coast’s natural shield against erosion, 22,486 square metres of sandy bottoms and 11,661 square metres of reefs, and vital feeding grounds for protected turtles Caretta caretta and Chelonia mydas that frequent the area year-round.
The report by coastal engineering expert Xenia Loizidou notes that the severe erosion observed today is partly due to the existing Pervolia breakwater, constructed in 1980. She warns that building new hard structures 240 metres from the coast would not only fail to solve the problem but would create new instability conditions, increasing erosion at northern coastal points.
“Sand in the area follows a natural cycle: carried away in winter and returns in summer. Artificial works would disrupt this balance,” the report states.
The report concludes the proposed plan cannot be deemed environmentally acceptable due to expected impacts on the area’s marine ecosystems, particularly Posidonia meadows.
Regarding artificial replenishment proposed in the milder solution examined, the expert report expressed significant reservations about using quarry sand due to the sensitivity of the area’s marine ecosystems.
The report additionally recommends softer coastal protection measures, including extension of existing armoring, construction of sea access stairs, jetties on piles, short dense bottom groin systems, and reconstruction of the existing parallel breakwater.
The study area consists of three sub-areas: the first from Kiti Cape to the western edge of natural boulder coastal armoring in Pervolia community, the second from that point to the Yialos Village (Cybarco) complex, and the third from the complex to the eastern boundary of the study area at Larnaca airport.
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