Beleaguered waste plant taken over by water board
Control of the Pentakomo waste treatment plant was officially assumed by the water development board early Tuesday morning.
The water board is set to administer the plant for a “transitional period” until it can be assigned to a new contractor, following termination of the previous contractor’s contract earlier in the month.
Water board director Iliana Tofa spoke after assuming control of Pentakomo and said her primary concern “is to continue the plant’s operation without interruption, so as not to cause disruption regarding waste management in the Limassol district”.
She added that procedures regarding the creation of a new tender are progressing.
With the water board now in control, the Pentakomo plant has now been fully operational since 7am.
Additionally, it has been decided that for the meantime at least, all workers at Pentakomo will remain in post, with a few changes regarding management personnel. Wages, including the 13th salary, will be paid on time to the plant’s employees.
“I am sure this is a positive development. We have had so many problems for so many years and despite all the efforts we made, we could not find a solution,” the Limassol waste disposal council chairman Doros Antoniou said. “Sometimes you have to cut things off to move forwards.”
The water board’s assumption of control comes as a relief to those who had been concerned regarding the plant’s future following the cessation of the contract with the previous employer.
An investigative committee report into the Pentakomo plant was submitted to cabinet on November 15. The cabinet decided to forward the findings to the attorney-general to determine whether any disciplinary proceedings are warranted, before it was decided that the contract be terminated.
The contractor had sent an open letter to President Nikos Christodoulides regarding the matter in a move which was described by some as an attempt to “limit their liability”, but their efforts to absolve themselves in the end bore no fruit.
The operation of the Pentakomo plant had been described as a “fiasco”. Initially the facility was supposed to generate Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF).
However, the technology for the plant was changed after the contract had been awarded, in a move described as a “blatant irregularity”. The mechanical biological treatment of municipal waste stipulated in the tender specs was replaced by what is known as anaerobic biological treatment.
This treatment technique could not produce SRF as the project specs had stipulated, but produces Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) which has a high moisture content and a low calorific value that renders it a poor alternative source of fuel.
With no takers for the RDF, the Pentakomo plant had been burying all the treated waste, transforming itself into a landfill site, in effect doing the exact thing it was built to end.
As far back as May, Agriculture Minister Petros Xenophontos had said Pentakomo had “never operated properly”.
Pentakomo mukhtar Pambos Charalambous had described the situation as “tragic” and said residents expected an immediate solution to the problems.
Lefteris Fokas, mukhtar of neighbouring Kalavasos, had said “we cannot wait any longer” for the plant’s problems to be solved.