Licensing, the sewage system and the water supply are among the challenges that the Larnaca District Government Organization (DGOO) will face in 2025, the Organization's President, Angelos Hadjicharalambous, told CNA.
Specifically, he stated that "the most important challenge for the EOA is the issue of licensing and our goal is to reach the levels of performance that people expect, namely that urban planning and building permits are issued promptly."
"First, we should clarify the pending applications that were transferred to the EOA, which are essentially the problematic applications, that is, those that were difficult and complicated cases for the Licensing Authority, either because it was seeking opinions from various departments or had not been examined for various other reasons," he said.
He added that "the next stage is to establish a proper flow and process for examining these applications. The messages and requests that we receive as Larnaca EOA from the public are very numerous and justified, because citizens demand to see improvement in this specific hot issue," he said.
Responding to a question, Mr. Hadjicharalambous said that "today there is a great improvement in the staffing of the Larnaca Regional Office compared to where we were at the beginning, namely on July 1, 2024, however we still have a long way to go. In February we expect a significant staffing increase, which will help us achieve our goals, while with some other actions we are taking, namely purchasing services and simplifying procedures, we will manage to clear up the pending applications," he added.
Asked how soon the public will be able to receive their building permit, Mr. Hadjicharalambous referred to the decree of the Minister of Interior according to which "for a simple two-family house, which does not have any deviations, the urban planning permit will be issued in 20 days and the building permit in the next 20 days. Applications will be issued by the 'Ippodamos' system, and the designer will simply upload the information needed and in 40 days both the urban planning and building permits will be issued," he said.
He also noted that as "EDA we are obliged, at the planning and building permit stage, to check a percentage of 15% of applications, while all of them will be checked at the final stage. With the clearing of all pending applications and the personnel with which the service will be staffed, we will now deal with all planning and building permits," he said.
He also continued, "we should staff the service so that there is better control during the construction stage and we will reach the final control, something that was not done until today, since the urban planning and building permits were issued, the citizen began to build his house without having final approval."
Regarding "Ippodamos", Mr. Hadjicharalambous said that "the system has problems for the solution of which there have been many discussions with the Ministry of the Interior and the Deputy Ministry of Innovation. This is a program in which a lot of money was invested and we should support it and give it the opportunity to function properly", he said, and noted that "things are much better today, however, there are still operational problems, and the Deputy Ministry of Innovation should step in and address these specific issues".
In his statements, Mr. Hadjicharalambous said that "another challenge facing the Larnaca Water Supply Authority is the issue of water supply, which was transferred from the Larnaca Water Supply Council to the Agency and the 16 communities, which came under our jurisdiction. In most communities, there are serious problems with water supply, due to outdated networks, which were identified and recorded, while the implementation of a plan that will lead to the reduction of water losses has begun," he said.
He stated that "there are serious water losses throughout the Larnaca district," and noted that "works must be carried out in order to manage to minimize the reduction of this valuable resource."
He also explained that "municipalities and communities have left the water supply networks without maintenance, resulting in a lot of work to be done by the EOA. However, projects are prioritized and priorities are set in cases where there is a large loss of water in specific areas," he pointed out.
Mr. Hadjicharalambous also referred to the sewage system which, as he said, "must be completed in all municipalities and communities under the Organization. The sewage projects are large and have a budget of several million euros, some of them are in progress while others have been put on track," he said.
Within the year, he continued, "tenders will be announced for the sewage system in the Municipality of Aradippou and the communities of Livadia, Pyla and Oroklini, which is expected to cost approximately 270 million euros."
Regarding the reclaimed water taken from the sewage system, the President of the Larnaca EOA said that "today we have approximately four and a half million cubic meters of reclaimed water annually, which we give back to agriculture. In Larnaca we have 100% recycling of water and sludge, which is also sent back to the soil, by granting it to farmers using it as a soil conditioner."
Asked about the Organization's next few years, Angelos Hadjicharalambous replied that "our priority is to carry out the projects that need to be done, to bring the EOA to a state that truly meets its requirements, to provide quality and good services to the public and the province. We believe that the next few years belong to Larnaca and the EOA is and will be by the side of the city to help it in whatever it needs, so that it can move forward and become a pole of attraction for both residents and visitors," he concluded.
Source: KYPE
