Cyprus Mail - 14 April - article by Katy Turner
The community of Pissouri blocked the Limassol to Paphos highway on Sunday morning to demonstrate against the lack of compensation from the state for homes that are slipping down the hillside.
Demonstrators held banners over a bridge on the highway near Pissouri, while others stood in the road blocking traffic.
It is estimated that more than six families have already been forced to leave their homes due to major cracks in the buildings caused by land slippage.
In February the government agreed to compensate home owners in the Limnes area and to carry out a geological survey on the area.
One of the homes affected
After this announcement Greens’ MP Giorgos Perdikis said that the government moves at a snail’s pace. By the time measures are taken, he said, most of the buildings will have collapsed leaving scores of residents without a home.
In 2015, some of the property owners formed the Pissouri Housing Initiative Group (PHIG) and paid out thousands of euros to obtain studies and papers from various renowned international experts and also satellite imaging, at a cost of €25,000, which measures the movement of the land. According to the study, the movement is up to 40cm per year, which is a lot when it’s pressing against a house.
Damage includes cracks in interior and exterior walls, swimming pools, roads, pavements, footpaths, retaining walls, drains, water pipes and other infrastructure works.
The land slippage is due to failure to provide adequate infrastructure to manage groundwater, and allowing development to go ahead in the area. Residents blame authorities that have permitted large scale development but failed to carry out infrastructure works either to manage the groundwater, or to stabilise the sliding hillside.
