Geologists’ report on Limni area by end of month

By Andria Kades

A TEAM of geologists should have a study on the Limni area in Pissouri ready by the end of this month looking into how to combat the land slippage problem, according to Animal Party head Kyriakos Kyriakou.

Although the interior ministry could not confirm this, it recently announced it was investigating the matter and looking at measures it could implement such as expanding infrastructure that channel rain water away from the area and drilling new wells to monitor the underground water.

“Three homes have already been demolished, while new cracks appear every day at the others,” said Kyriakou, who is involved in the Pissouri Housing Initiative Group. Homeowners have appealed to the government for help as several houses sustained structural damage due to land slippage such as cracks in interior and exterior walls, swimming pools, roads, pavements, footpaths, retaining walls, drains, water pipes and other infrastructure.

“Each new crack sounds like shooting that can shake us out of bed in the night and every morning we inspect every inch of our homes to see if the cracks and rifts have grown. “

About 50 homes have been affected and in the meantime, they are in a race against time wanting to know when and how their problem will be dealt with.

“We fear that the summer drought will lead to further subsidence of the ground and we fear that the next rain will penetrate the already affected foundations of our homes.”

The ministry said the problem in the Pissouri area was mainly due to the underground water, which is close to the surface, in combination with the geological conditions of the area.

“The ground, up to a depth of 16 metres, is made up of loose material that came from past landslide in the wider area,” the ministry said in a written statement. “The ground morphology does not allow the water to escape, as the area’s name ‘Limnes’ (lakes) denotes.”