New measures to combat marine pollution promoted by the Limassol Municipality

The issue of marine pollution along the coast of Limassol remains high on the list of priorities of the Mayor of Limassol, Nicos Nicolaides, who chaired a meeting with stakeholders, assessing the measures taken this summer and setting targets for 2019.  
 
During the summer of 2019, recreational crafts will be put under the microscope of the services, since according to Mr Nicolaides, there are “reasonable grounds for believing that they constitute a serious source of pollution”, while efforts will be made to overcome any issues arising from the coordination of the various departments and the gaps identified in the legislation.
  
The first outcome, as stated by the Mayor of Limassol, is that this year’s conditions have been improved, “something that two factors greatly contributed to, namely the cooperation between the departments and services involved and the employment of experts through service contracts in respect of specialised services and sea patrols to monitor and combat marine pollution”.

 
Furthermore, he proceeded to add, a great deal of information has been collected in due time and will be evaluated as to decide on the additional measures to be taken by the relevant departments for the summer of 2019.
 
Moreover, it should be noted that all sources of pollution will continue to be monitored and controlled to the extent possible, while as Mr Nicolaides stressed “great attention will be given to recreational crafts regardless of size, as a source of pollution, and their berths in the two marinas of Limassol".
 
The fourth and fifth outcomes of the meeting concern the shortcomings identified in the coordination of the different departments and the legislation respectively.  

Mr Nicolaides reported that the legislation must be amended immediately in order to cover the gaps, as these gaps “mainly have to do with the responsibilities of the services. The services involved should be able to impose fines timely and effectively when illegal activities are identified, since if no penalties are imposed, all applicable measures will be ineffective”.
 
He further mentioned that there is a significant number of cases where “it was impossible to penalise to the full extent due to the inadequacy of the procedures and lack of a legislative framework clearly defining the responsibilities of each service to impose such fines”.
 
Our goal, Mr Nicolaides concluded, “is to continue this great effort to improve the quality of the Limassol sea to the benefit of Limassolians and visitors”.