Politics blocks water lifeline

It looks like Cyprus politics has taken hostage the wastewater treatment plant in Mia Milia, foiling an agreement struck 14 years ago and resulting in the discarding of virtually all of the processed water – some 10 million tones of it a year – instead of the precious resource being utilised for irrigation in the north and south of the island.

At least, that’s the only explanation that can be inferred, as sources very close to the bi-communal project tell us that, on the technical side, it’s all good to go – provided the leaders of the two communities give the green light.

The current plant at Mia Milia – located in the north – was built on the site of the old facility, erected in the early 1970s, following a tender launched under the umbrella of the United Nations Development Programme (Undp).

The new facility went operational in 2013, using tertiary treatment and advanced membrane technology to produce safe, recycled water for agricultural irrigation purposes. It treats wastewater from the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities. The project, which had a total cost of around €29 million, was co-financed by the Nicosia Sewerage Board (70 per cent) and the European Commission (30 per cent) and implemented by Undp.

It takes in sewage from the areas of Nicosia, Ayios Dhometios, Engomi, parts of the Strovolos and Aglandjia districts, and part of the northern Nicosia area.

In fact, around 80 per cent of the sewage treated at Mia Milia comes from the Greek Cypriot side.

Under the 2011 deal, 70 per cent of the treated water would go to the south for irrigation, the remainder to the north.

Except, that never happened.

So the effluent, the treated water, ends up getting discarded into the Pedieos river.

The ‘why’ is a long story, but the official and quasi-official consensus on the Greek Cypriot side pins the blame squarely on the Turkish Cypriots for not cooperating and not fulfilling their end of the bargain.

According to reports in the Greek-language media, the reasons vary from the Turkish Cypriots not paying their share of expenses, to posing obstacles because some of the pipes from Mia Milia would ostensibly cross through sensitive militarised zones in the north.

Only this week, after talks with Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, President Nikos Christodoulides stated that no progress was made on the Mia Milia plant because Tatar “refused” to discuss the issue.

This rings very strange to Michalis Loizides, the Greek Cypriot co-chair of the bi-communal technical committee on the environment.

Loizides, who has tracked the matter closely for years, said that despite the doom and gloom as reflected in the media, he remains optimistic.

All that remains, he told the Cyprus Mail, is for the leaders of the two communities to activate the relevant clause in the 2011 agreement – the clause that would finally allow infrastructure works to commence so as to make use of the treated water rather than let it to go to waste.

“Mia Milia is a flagship bi-communal project, perhaps the most important one,” he noted.

A chemical and environmental engineer himself, Loizides stresses that the studies have been done relating to the route the treated water would take.

“This issue has been resolved. So the difficulty isn’t technical, it’s political.”

Asked for his take, the expert cited a concern on the Greek Cypriot side that the Turkish Cypriots might ‘switch off’ the facility at any given time.

“But to me it sounds far-fetched,” he remarked.

Currently a German company runs the facility at Mia Milia.

According to the schematics, on the Turkish Cypriot side the treated water would end up somewhere near the old Nicosia airport.

On the Greek Cypriot side, it would likewise flow via a main pipeline to the Vathia Gonia facility near Potamia village – and from there other pipes would carry it on to Athienou for irrigation purposes, for the farmers who need it badly.

Total piping (for both sides) would cost an estimated €20 million. Part of the cost on the Turkish Cypriot side could be undertaken by international funders like the European Commission.

“Next we’d have to build large tanks to store the treated water – we call them storage lagoons,” said Loizides.

In the south, there would be two deep storage lagoons – one at the site of Vathia Gonia and another in Athienou. Technical studies have been carried out for all of this.

The existing Vathia Gonia facility treats sewage from eastern Nicosia. It likewise uses tertiary treatment, so no further processing would be needed for the water from Mia Milia.

And why specifically to Vathia Gonia? Purely for reasons of convenience – it’s an existing infrastructure not far from Mia Milia. Essentially it would act as a transfer station.

Approximately 10km of piping would be needed to link Mia Milia to Vathia Gonia – very little in the grand scheme of things.

Asked whether the effluent produced at Mia Milia poses any other problems – such as high salinity – the expert said no.

“As things stand now, we’ve got a lose-lose situation,” Loizides says with some frustration.

“It costs about €1 to generate one cubic metre of treated water. None of it gets used. If it did get used, on the Greek Cypriot side you’d charge consumers anywhere from 30 to 50 cents per cubic metre. But now, there’s zero revenue.”

Pressed on what’s holding up unlocking a final agreement to utilise the effluent from Mia Milia, Loizides chooses his words carefully:

“For many years the issue of Mia Milia was put on the backburner, kind of ignored, probably because it was not that urgent. But now it has gotten attention because of the drought and the pressing water shortages.”

Moreover Loizides points out the “excellent” cooperation with the Turkish Cypriots at the ground level, as it were. He spoke highly of Salih Gucel, the Turkish Cypriot co-chair of the technical committee.

“Look, the 2011 agreement on Mia Milia is clear-cut. It covers everything, chapter and verse.

“So if Tatar is indeed not positively disposed towards it, as reported, this should not be a big problem as the agreement is a binding one.”

What the two leaders need to do, he adds, is activate the relevant clause in the agreement.

“The agreement has three parts to it: entry, treatment, and exit. If we can agree on the first two, why not the third part also?”

In the best-case scenario, assuming the green light came today, it would take about one to one-and-half years for the piping to finish.

Other sources we spoke to, and who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed reports that the Turkish Cypriot side had not paid about €3 million of their share of dues. Greek Cypriot media have reported far higher numbers.

But these dues were at some point covered – by whom it’s unclear, although likely by the Greek Cypriot side.

“Anyway, that’s not the real stumbling block, even if the Turkish Cypriots were behind on their dues,” said the same sources.

It seems, rather, that the issue of Mia Milia has become a political football, one of many – even though it’s supposed to be a confidence-building measure between the two communities.