The Mazotos Community Council has gone to court seeking an injunction to suspend construction of a mobile desalination unit in the Petounta area, escalating a dispute with authorities over what residents say are inadequate environmental studies and serious risks to the local marine environment.
The council has already held one public protest. Its president, Giorgos Dimitriou, told Phileleftheros the community was not satisfied with the environmental studies carried out for the project. “We consider the environmental studies they conducted to be shoddy. As experts have explained to us, proper studies cannot be done in such a short time,” he said.
Dimitriou added that the council would send to the Agriculture Minister a study by a specialist private company showing that the environment would be affected. He said the pipes to be laid on the seabed would cause significant damage to posidonia seagrass meadows.
“As the researcher told me, the pipes to be placed in the sea will destroy many posidonia meadows,” he said. Posidonia seagrass is considered a key indicator of marine ecosystem health and is protected under European law.
The community council president made clear that residents would not discuss any compensatory benefits unless proper studies on environmental and public health impacts were first carried out. “If compensation is offered but the area is destroyed, what use is it to us?” he said.
Dimitriou said what the community was seeking was the designation of the area as a tourist zone, which would prevent future unwanted installations from being placed there. “We will only agree to discuss compensatory benefits if we have the proper environmental studies,” he said.
Phileleftheros put the community’s concerns to the Agriculture Minister, who defended the project. Minister Panayiotou said desalination units were a necessity for securing adequate water for households, businesses and the economy. She said the siting of the mobile unit at Mazotos had been assessed by the Environmental Authority, which approved its installation and operation subject to specific environmental conditions.
“The purpose of the project is the processing of seawater to produce drinking water, strengthening the country’s water security, its resilience to the effects of climate change, and ensuring adequate and quality water supply for citizens,” she said.
The minister said she understood the concerns raised and considered it “entirely legitimate for there to be public dialogue around projects affecting the environment and local communities.”
She said all relevant studies had been sent to the local authority in the interest of transparency, that the ministry had invited questions for evidenced responses, and that it had expressed its readiness to publicly brief residents on all aspects of the project.
Panayiotou gave assurances that the environmental conditions attached to the project would be met. “The Environmental Authority’s decision is accompanied by specific environmental conditions, protective measures and continuous monitoring procedures to ensure the protection of the marine and natural environment throughout the unit’s operation,” she said. “Our goal is to proceed with responsibility, transparency and respect for the environment and local communities, while securing a vital resource for the future of our country.”