19.02.2023
The government has allocated funds to stabilize the landslide that caused the collapse of the houses, but there is still no decision on compensation to the owners.
The government is going to pay 33 million euros to clean up a landslide that destroyed up to 250 houses in the Pissouri area, destroyed walls, twisted streets and driveways, and smashed water and drainage pipes.
But none of that 33 million euros will go towards compensating homeowners who have had to leave their properties and watch their homes crumble over the past 11 years through no fault of their own.
And it is doubtful that this amount would even be enough to address the negative effects of the landslide, as the Pissouri Housing Action Group (PHIG) says the state should have acted earlier when the problem first arose in 2012 as the landslide continues to affect hundreds of homes in the area.
In the meantime, the residents were engaged in an ongoing battle to obtain some form of compensation from various authorities that had been manipulating them for almost a decade.
At a cabinet meeting in December 2022, a plan was approved for supporting works in the area of the landslide, which affected the village and, in particular, the “Limnes” area.
About 250 houses were built as a result of the landslide, but not all have yet felt the effects, according to PHIG group lawyer Elina Zoy. However, she added that it was only a matter of time before the subsidence affected other homes in the area. “I am not exaggerating when I say that this area resembles a bombed-out landscape,” she told parliament in December.
The work, according to the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers, will be monitored by the Public Works Department, which will additionally be staffed by two civil engineers and two technical engineers. The overall supervision of the multi-million dollar projects will be carried out by the Department, the Limassol Regional Office, the Department of Geological Exploration, the Water Board and the Mining Department.
The first phase of the project included the creation of an arched pile wall to stabilize the higher section, while the second phase would involve the construction of an embankment at the foot of the landslide to stop it. These two works will cost the state 33 million euros, of which 5.8 million euros were allocated in 2022.
The Limassol region has already started the first phase of the project and should complete it by September 2023. However, Zoe insists that work should have started earlier, and the arched pile wall already built by the Limassol District Office is not enough. She said that two projects were not enough as proper drainage had to be created for other houses to avoid subsidence. The drainage is located upstream of the landslide and does not include the area of the landslide. But she acknowledged that at this stage, residents would benefit from any ongoing work as the situation continues to deteriorate.
Zoe has confirmed that none of her clients have been compensated and insists that compensating homeowners should be a political decision as when buying houses the owners were unaware of this and neither were the builders who were mostly small construction companies. .
“The moment I am forced to file a lawsuit against the Republic of Cyprus for compensation for the victims of the Pissouri landslide, I will have to admit that the Republic of Cyprus does not respect either the people or the principles that it preaches,” she told the House of Representatives internal committee in November 2022.
She said the picture of the houses that are now demolished is “depressing” because people once lived in them. “The picture is depressing and affects the psychology and health of the people who stayed there because they have nowhere else to go,” she said.
Paying off bank loans for a crumbling house that you were forced to leave while you are paying rent on other property is also a problem.
“In addition, the problem of installment loan claims by banks from people who were forced to pay rent after their houses were declared uninhabitable has not yet been resolved,” she said.
One of the former residents and PHIG head Peter Fields said they have been writing to local authorities since 2012. “Nothing happened and from the very beginning we were told to leave,” he said.
He added that many residents were alerted when the cracks appeared and were ordered to leave the area. Many, he says, are just like him, pensioners who have no other income than a pension, and the insurance companies did nothing to help them.
Commenting on the expected compensation, Fields said authorities have now said they will look into the matter once the ancillary work is completed.
“We hope this comes to a just end,” he said, describing the ordeal they have gone through over the past ten years.
In the meantime, the ETEK technical chamber also supported the PHIG lawyer’s opinion, stating that the studies for the second phase could have been completed earlier.
“We believe that the necessary slope measurements to ensure the effectiveness of the second phase of the project could have already been carried out using the time period before the completion of the first phase of the project or the period of time between the first phase and the second phase of the project, due to the time required in the process of preparing the tender documentation for the second phase of the project,” ETEK said last month, adding that this was clarified by participants in the November meeting of the House of Representatives Home Affairs Committee.
They added that for several years the chamber had been raising the urgent need to investigate the Pissouri issue and that the active landslide in the community required immediate action to protect human life.
Commenting on whether the problem could have been foreseen, ETEK stated that geohazards affecting specific regions could not be addressed with separate studies on each development, but rather needed wider mapping by the state, demonstrating specific risks in each area and informing residents and engineers.
Meanwhile, residents are still waiting for compensation.
