After seven whole years of stagnation and an unprecedented and scandalous delay in the award of a public contract, the sewerage system of Kokkinochorion is finally coming out of the impasse.
More specifically, the process regarding the award of the contract for the construction of the Wastewater Treatment Plant has been unblocked, which, as unbelievable as it may seem, has been pending for exactly seven years, since July 2013!
So, after seven years of stagnation, the contract awarded to Cyfield has been canceled. The Kokkinohoria Sewerage Council estimates that work can begin next September with the prospect of completion by the summer of 2023.
Work is possible to start in September
The Department of Water Development informed the Sewerage Council of Kokkinochorion in writing by letter dated July 3, 2020 that it has notified the results to the interested economic entities that submitted bids in the framework of the 10/2013 tender. That was exactly seven years after the tender was announced on July 16, 2013. The award was made in July 2014 but, unfortunately, it took six full years to clear up the appeals that reached the Supreme Court last November. .
With the letter of July 3, 2020 addressed to the president of the Sewerage Council of Kokkinochorion and mayor of Deryneia, Andro Karagianni, the Department of Water Development informs that based on the Memorandum of Understanding signed with SAK on June 12, 2013, the SAK will Successful bidder for the operation and maintenance of the Wastewater Treatment Plant for a period of 20 years undertaking this cost which will be recovered from the sewerage fees.
The Department of Water Development will sign a contract for the study and construction of the Biological Station with the company Cyfield for the amount of 24.833.365 euros plus VAT, while the cost for the twenty years of operation and maintenance of the Station amounts to 18.863.418 plus VAT.
The TAI informed the president of SAK about the details of the process in a meeting last Wednesday, July 8, noting that the preparation of the sewerage fees that will be imposed on the citizens of the ten municipalities and communities that make up the Kokkinohoria complex must begin immediately.
Procedurally, a letter will be sent to the contractor tomorrow Monday and within a month it is estimated that the contracts will be signed, after the company that won the tender presents a bank guarantee of 8 million euros.
As the mayor of Deryneia and president of SAK stated in the newspaper "Haravgi", it seems that it is possible to start work in September. "We hope that in September the works at the Wastewater Treatment Plant will begin, which must be completed in 22 months," said Andros Karagiannis, who, even after such a long delay, expressed his satisfaction with the resumption of the project after several pressures. by the Sewer Council.
The imposition of sewerage fees begins immediately
The Wastewater Treatment Plant will be constructed on a plot between the Achna Forest and Avgoros. Among the procedures that must now be carried out are, of course, the staffing of the Sewerage Council, but also its housing, which will be temporarily housed in detachable estates until the completion of the Biological plant on whose premises the SAK will be permanently housed.
Regarding the sewerage fees that directly concern the taxpayers of the ten municipalities and communities of the complex, the TAY informed SAK that it must immediately take care of the imposition of the relevant taxation so that it can meet the financial obligations of the twenty-year contract. operation and maintenance.
Andros Karagiannis stated to "X" that within July a final decision will be made on the sewerage fees and the bills will start to be sent immediately. SAK has decided in principle to start with the lowest fees.
What about the cost of delays?
Following the latest developments, it is everyone's wish that within 2023 the pipeline network at the Wastewater Treatment Plant can finally be connected to put into operation the Kokkinochorion sewerage system, which covers the Municipalities of Deryneia and Sotira and the communities of Xylofagos, Xylotympos, Ormi , Achnas, Avgorou, Liopetri, Frenarous and Vrysoullon-Acheritou.
But there is another big issue that needs to be clarified and that is the damage to the pipeline network and infrastructure which has already occurred due to the long-standing stagnation in the contract award process for the Biological Station. The SAK must conduct further checks on the situation in the underground networks in which, as it has complained, some citizens connected the houses on their own and channeled the sewage, as a result of which they remained stationary and created conditions of decay.
Damage to the manhole covers has also been found, among other things. All of this entails costs for repairs which, according to the SAC, cannot be borne by taxpayers directly but must be covered by the government which is responsible for the tragic management of the study and construction contract of the Processing Station and the huge delay. .
Last May, the president of SAK sent a letter to the Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment, placing the government in front of its responsibilities regarding the cost of the required repairs.
As Mr. Karagiannis clarified, the six-year delay in the operation of the Sewage Treatment Plant is not the responsibility of the Sewerage Council and therefore the responsibility for the problems that arose due to this delay lies solely with the state. Therefore, according to the chairman of the Kokkinochorion Sewerage Council, the cost of repairs and generally the initial costs until the network is satisfactory must be covered by the government. A shocking example of this ridiculous situation is the fact that in most of the wells the rubber bands are completely worn out with all the unpleasant consequences. These and other parts of the network need partial or even total maintenance, as pointed out by the head of SAK, who also reiterated the complaints that citizens have connected their homes to the network and illegally discard the waste that remains. resulting in a dangerous situation for the environment, but also for people.
Andros Karagiannis clarified the strong concern of the Local Authorities in the possibility of being called to contribute financially to the repair of the network, which remains inactive for about a decade, clarifying that the responsibility for the delay and problems lies with the state which must therefore assume the cost.
In one of the most scandalous public works of the last decades, the sewerage system of the Kokkinochorion complex started to be built in 2010 but ten years later it still has not worked! The reason is the outrageous delay in the tendering procedures for the construction and operation of the Wastewater Treatment Plant, a process which is undoubtedly one of the worst examples of state operation in the history of the Republic. As mentioned above, the primary auction took place in July 2014 and since then a "war" of hierarchical appeals of the companies that claimed the project, which continued until recently, has begun. Due to this unprecedented delay, even for the data of Cyprus, the pipeline network has been completed since 2014, but six years later it has not yet been put into operation since there is no Processing Station to connect!
All these tragic manipulations also led to the punishment of Cyprus by the Court of the European Union. As it was revealed last March, the WEU condemned the Republic of Cyprus for failing to fulfill its obligations regarding projects for the collection and treatment of urban wastewater in 31 settlements. Of these, 10 are the settlements that compose the sewerage complex of Kokkinochorion…
The ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union came as a continuation of infringement proceedings initiated by the European Commission in 2017 and a warning letter from the Commission in 2018 but the government was unable to comply.
Source: dialogos.com.cy