Renovation work at the Mia Milia bicommunal sewage treatment plant “will not harm birds”, the Nicosia Turkish Municipality (LTB) said on Friday.
Concerns had been raised that the lagoons where wastewater was kept at the plant had dried up, thus potentially causing problems for the various migratory bird species which have come to use them.
The LTB explained that with the renovated plant being commissioned, the amount of wastewater being accepted at Mia Milia “decreased significantly”, which caused some of the lagoons in the area to “naturally dry up”.
To this end, it pointed out that Mia Milia is not a natural wetland, and that as such, the lagoons only exist because of the water treatment plant next to them.
“The remaining lagoons have remained alive thanks to the clean water being supplied to them by the LTB,” they said.
It then pointed out that the project is being financed by the European Union, and that as such, it was “prepared in accordance with the vision of a completely sustainable environment.”
“The aim of this environmentally focused project, which will completely eliminate the existing pollution, is to ensure that domestic wastewater transported by sewage tankers from areas not connected to the sewage system is discharged directly into the plant rather than being discharged into pools and stored,” the LTB said.
The LTB said another aim of the project is to end the plant’s acceptance of industrial wastewater, such as whey and water from slaughterhouses, which, it said, “causes damage to the environment by penetrating both underground and surface water.”
While this is being done, a small part of the existing lagoons will be drained, while the LTB said the rest of the lagoons will receive “no intervention at all”.
The LTB then pointed out that an environmental impact assessment report was submitted on the matter and that a public participation meeting was held on August 24, 2021, with only the north’s bird protection society Kuskor attending it.
“Kuskor’s opinions and suggestions were included both in the environmental impact assessment report and in the tender preparation studies,” the LTB said, adding that “suggestions from Kuskor were also taken into consideration in the implementation plans the LTB will make for the area’s bird population.”
“In light of these facts, the work carried out in Mia Milia is not a project which will harm the migratory birds in the environment or in the region as claimed, but, on the contrary, is a project which will protect the entire ecosystem in the region from the destruction caused by septic water and industrial waste which is currently released into nature.”
