Tankers caught dumping raw sewage on ground in Trikomo

Vacuum tankers tasked with transporting sewage from Trikomo to Famagusta were found dumping raw sewage onto waste ground on the side of the road, Trikomo’s Turkish Cypriot municipality announced on Tuesday.

They said they had found two tankers dumping raw sewage, both belonging to the same company, and that the company had been fined 204,420TL (€5,850) for their crimes.

The first incident had taken place on Saturday night, with municipal teams having followed a tanker to find it depositing its load on the side of a road.

Then, on Monday, the second truck was found committing the same crime.

The municipality said they “do not allow business which do not comply with the rules and negatively affect human health.”

Vacuum tankers are required to transport sewage away from Trikomo as the village’s sewage system is currently insufficient to deal with its population, owing to the rapid rate of construction in the area in recent years.

Each vacuum tanker trip costs the Trikomo taxpayer between 2,000TL (€57) and 3,500TL (€100), depending on the size of the tanker.

Plans are afoot to bring Trikomo’s sewage system up to the required standards and capacity to deal with its burgeoning population, but they are said to cost a total of €25 million.

Sewage being found in places it should not is a recurring theme in Trikomo.

Tests carried out by the north’s ‘health ministry’ frequently finding levels of e.coli and intestinal enterococci, bacteria characteristically found in human faecal matter, to be higher than is typically considered safe in the local seawater.