Concerns over a massive construction in Paphos on a hillside above Peyia are raised by the environmentalists and the public. They declare that the project at Sacred Mountain - Ayia Vouni can spoil the natural environment and put unnecessary pressure on the surrounding infrastructure. This kind of development, proposed in Cyprus Paphos site violates the rules of the building policy introduced in 2014, which regulate the promotion and control of industrial development in the countryside and aim to provide increased construction efficiency.



Environmentalists were present at a council meeting in Peyia and participated in a presentation of the representatives of the projects’ developers. The initiator of this construction appeared to be George Vassiliou, a former president of Cyprus. Vassiliou owned around 330,000 m2 of lands in Peyia and proposed to build a ‘sustainable development project with a near zero energy settlement’. The project can receive 1 million euros funding of the EU as it was evaluated as the Zero energy initiative. It was also told about 43 million euros which would come as direct benefits to Peyia, as taxes and other payments, as well as 126 mln euros in indirect benefits.

The leader of the environmental committee, Klitos Papastylianou, who was present at the meeting, said that he hopes that the project should not start until it has been thoroughly studied. Klitos Papastylianou underlined a number of big negative impacts and noted that the criteria for ‘strategic and secondary use’ of the building were not met by the investor and the developers of this project. He mentioned that its pros can make up around 5% and they include rehabilitation and development centres. However, the concerns were raised about evil impact on the fauna and flora, possible landslides and flooding, height of buildings, water supply, public access roads. Environmentalists are against destruction of “untouched pristine natural environment” and “sealing the nature by concrete” and a «transformation of the morphology of the area» by excavating and deforestation on a hillside and around.