Filenews 12 October 2023
The second phase of the subsoil stabilization works in Pissouri, which would have cost about €33 million, has been frozen until further notice, as the Ministry of Interior, the Geological Survey Department and other stakeholders want to ensure that the money spent does not go to waste.
Already, €8.5 million has been spent on the first phase of the project (creation of a pile wall).
The decision not to implement the second phase of the works was announced by the Director-General of the Ministry of Interior, Dr. Elikkos Elias, who informed the members of the Parliamentary Committee on Internal Affairs, said: "The second phase of the project will not proceed because the problem seems bigger than initially estimated. It would be a waste of public money if projects of dubious performance were to continue without further data being collected as to the current situation and what should be done.
Commenting on reports, he indicated that the six-month period given to collect more data is not long for such specialized drilling but also for the analysis of the resulting data.
Mr. Elias noted that the initial study to address the problem does not seem to be able to address the new data that emerged. He said that based on information received from the Geological Survey Department, the data are different from those initially estimated, so the issue should be handled differently.
He also acknowledged that de facto it appeared that the licensing of developments in the affected areas was not correct.
The President of the Community of Pissouri, Lazaros Lazarou, expressed satisfaction that the government showed interest in solving the problem of subsidence. He also referred to the damage suffered by buildings and stressed the need to support the owners.
One of the measures that will be taken is the pumping of the water that exists in the subsoil, since it is considered that its existence aggravated the problem. With the same reasoning, the creation of a sewerage system will be promoted.
The ETSC welcomed the fact that the issue will be further studied. It is recalled that ETEK was the first body to urgently raise the need to conduct new studies, expressing the position that if the projects were implemented as planned, it was not excluded that the state would proceed with an expenditure of approximately €35-€40 million. And in the end the problem would be solved by only 50-60%.
