More road works in our area

It's more than seven years ago that builders started digging up roads in Larnaca (and, we assume, other towns around Cyprus) in order to instal the new sewage pipes. The ones for storm drainage seem to have taken effect, and despite an extremely wet winter we have not seen any flooded streets in our neighbourhood.

Our street had its pipes installed in September 2011. Richard asked one of the builders when they expected the houses to be connected to the massive new mains drainage system, and was told, 'about five years'. He thought, at first, that the builder (whose English was not entirely fluent) had mistaken the period, and meant 'months'. I was more cynical. I reckoned five years was probably an optimistic estimate.

It turned out that I was right. Five years later, we had heard nothing. It wasn't until this time about a year ago that we received our official letter telling us that we needed to get our septic tank sealed, and the connections made so that we could be joined to the main drainage. The letter was all in somewhat complex Greek, but Google Translate is pretty good these days, and I can type Greek almost as fast as I type in English.

The main part of the letter said (in translation):

Please be advised that the sewer council of Larnaka (SAL) has completed the construction of the drainage system in your area and you can proceed with the connection of your premises after first submitting a request and obtaining the required permit. The application should be submitted on the attached form.

The SAL undertakes that the construction license will be issued as soon as possible, meaning that the application will be complete and accompanied by all required documents and documents. Then, with your own contractor and on the basis of the license you secure, build the private construction of your building. The Technical Inspector of the SAL will carry out an on-the-spot check on your contractor's (or your own) presence as soon as possible after your call. If the private building sub-building meets the technical specifications of the SAL, the Technical Inspector will issue the consent to link your property to the sewerage system.

Submitting an ΙΥΟ license and obtaining consent for a connection is also mandatory even where the private system is built.

For your convenience, we attach all the information you need to submit your application for an IYO, that is, the application form and the technical specifications. We furthermore inform you that the relevant information and these documents can also be found on the website www.lsdb.org.cy

If you have submitted an application for the construction of a IYO and you have obtained an IYO construction license and a certificate of consent for the connection of your premises, please ignore this letter.

It is noted that the connection of your premises is mandatory and must be completed within six months from the date of notification, ie until 08/06/2018.

It all sounded rather confusing, and we didn't do anything for the first few weeks. But then gradually our neighbours started having extensive (and very noisy) digging done. So Richard contacted a friend to ask who she used as a contractor. We were given a contact number, and a helpful guy came over to look at what we have currently. He explained that first we had to employ an architect to draw a detailed plan, then that had to be submitted to the sewage board for approval. They would grant a license, and we could then employ a builder he would recommend to do the work.

He told us that there was a long queue for this, and no, it couldn't possibly be done by the end of June, but that didn't matter at all. We said we would be away for six weeks over the summer, and he shrugged and said that nothing would happen in July and August anyway, so we didn't need to worry about it till the autumn.

A very competent architect came over, took extensive notes, and went away. A couple of weeks later she brought us the plans and charged us eighty euros. It seemed like a reasonable fee for some highly detailed drawings. She said that she had already submitted the plans to the relevant board, and gave us the reference number.

Summer came and went, and by the end of September we had heard nothing. So Richard phoned the number we were given by the architect. He was told that yes, our application was in process, and we should hear something by the end of the year.

Sure enough, last Monday there was another letter in our mailbox.

This one (according to Google Translate, again) told us that our application had been accepted, and that we had to go to the sewerage board to collect our license. It would cost us 60 euros, and after collecting it we should employ a builder to make our connections. At last!

It was rather a busy week, so it wasn't until Friday that we went to the sewage office. It was a bit complicated to find, but well-signed:

The letter told us to go to the first floor, so we did that, and handed over sixty euros. We were given a receipt and told to go to the second floor, where we were finally given our sewerage connection license. It says that it was actually granted on December 17th, but the letter was not written until January 3rd, and did not arrive in our mailbox until nearly three weeks later - we have no idea why the internal Cyprus post is so slow, but this is not unusual.

Richard phoned the original contact in the afternoon, who said he would come over with the builder soon, to give us a quote, and then, hopefully, the work can start.

All of which is great, even if it has taken significantly longer than usual.

But... this is Cyprus. Nothing is ever straightforward.

On Tuesday, there was another letter in our mailbox. This one was just a brief notification:

The word 'ΟΔΟ' means 'street', so we were amused that instead of putting in our street name, whoever filled this in merely put 'ΣΑΣ' (which means 'your').

We were less amused that this turns out to be a notification that our street is going to be resurfaced.  Finally.  Over seven years since it was given its temporary resurfacing after the initial digging for sewers.  And then we will be employing someone to dig part of it up again in order to make our connection.

Sigh.

On Wednesday and Thursday last week the former surface was dug up and the rubble removed, leaving it like this:

Some other streets in the neighbourhood have also had their surfaces removed, so we assume they are finishing that process before starting the resurfacing. It will be very nice to have roads that are less bumpy, and look smarter...

Until our builders arrive and dig it up again. 

After the rain....

I wrote yesterday about the thunder and rain, which was really the first good rain for quite some time.  A bit came through the roof over the stairs, but by the time I went to bed the rain had stopped and the little puddles had almost disappeared. 

However, in the night it started raining again, quite heavily.  It had stopped by the time I got up this morning, but by around 7.00am when I was just thinking about walking down to the PO Box, it started again:

There was some blue in the sky so I was hopeful that this would not last too long; and, indeed, about twenty minutes later the sun came out.  

As I stepped out into the wet world that greeted me, I was struck again at how very clean everything looks after it's had a good downpour.  There always seem to be flowers blooming somewhere, and I snapped a few such as this one:

And this one, which I believe is called a bottle-brush plant: 

Some of the raindrops can still be seen on the leaves of this one, if you click to enlarge the photo:

This one, too, with vivid yellow blooms, looked very pretty sparkling with raindrops in the sun: 

There were puddles on waste ground, which will no doubt provide more breeding place for mosquitoes:

Some puddles in the streets, too... but I didn't see any really flooded roads.  Perhaps the new drainage system is beginning to be of use even if it isn't all connected: 

It would be nice if the roads could be re-surfaced after their extensive excavations, but perhaps that's too much to ask. 

Shortly after I arrived home, the rain started lightly again. Then around noon, there was some torrential pouring, making me glad that Richard had put the usual bucket and cool-box on our stairs to catch some of the leaks: 

We always need rain in Cyprus, so I hope this has gone some way to filling up the reservoirs again.  More is predicted tonight, and tomorrow.  Autumn has well and truly begun. 

Cyprus sewerage digging work continuing...

It's amazing how quickly one gets used to noise in the street, and general disruption in the neighbourhood. It's been ongoing for some time, with routes by car changing almost by the day as different places have been dug up for the local sewerage and (theoretically) storm drain project that is gradually taking place all around Cyprus.

It was almost two weeks ago when the digging started, in earnest, in our little bit of street. It only took a few days for the main pipes to be laid, then the hole was filled in again. The workmen kept going from about 7.00am every morning until 3.00pm, at which point they stopped, left the machines lying around, put up a few fences for a low-key kind of security, and departed.

They didn't work weekends, either. But our road was inaccessible for several days, meaning that rubbish piled up since, obviously, the dustmen (garbage collectors) could not drive into the road. However, by last weekend peace was more-or-less reigning, the road was accessible again, and the cats were able to relax.

Then it started up once more. This time, channels had to be dug across the road, to begin the process of connecting the sewers with the current septic tanks that we all have. Not that we'll be able to use the drains for some time - possibly several years - since everything has to be in place beforehand. The trenches were probably a couple of metres deep:


There were rough metal sheets over the pavement enabling us to walk down the street, so we weren't actually imprisoned entirely in our houses:


And there was a rather puzzling (typically Cypriot) diversion sign at the T-junction at one end of our road:


Puzzling for two reasons:
(1) Nobody could drive - or even walk - straight ahead anyway since there are houses there.
(2) Nobody could even drive up to that sign, since our road was closed.

Yesterday, they filled in the holes. It was excessively noisy and dusty, but by 3.00pm our road was open again. It looks rather a mess and is pretty bumpy:


But perhaps, one day, they will come back to re-surface it. Probably a week or two before the electricity or phone company comes to dig it up again for some other purpose...

Constant rumbling in the street... sewerage project in Larnaka

I was fairly blasé about the digging in our street yesterday. Even when the water went off, I wasn't too worried. We had some drinking water stored, and at 8.00this morning our mains water started flowing again.

There was a deep trench cut in our street, just like the ones we've seen in other roads in the neighbourhood in recent weeks:


- and this morning, about 6.45am, work started again. Various mechanical diggers have been up and down the road pretty much all day so far:


It's now mid-afternoon, 3.00pm, and they just paused. I'm not particularly hopeful since there have been several brief, wonderful pauses in the noise throughout the day. Blissful moments of silence before they start up again... although, this time, it seems as though they might indeed have stopped.

Richard asked one of the men how long it would be before the house drainage systems (currently septic tanks) can be linked in with these new storm and sewerage drains. About five years, he was told. Which, if previous experience is anything to go by, suggests that it could be twenty or twenty-five years at least. Unless, of course, the man was muddling his chronological units and meant 'five months'. In which case, I suppose it might be a couple of years.

At least I know what's going on, and hope it will be worth it in the end. Our cats have been very disturbed. Sophia is terrified of machines with arms, which must look like some kind of nightmare cat-eating monster to her. She has spent most of the day so far curled up by the stairs, which must somehow seem safer. Or perhaps offers a quick escape route upstairs if necessary:


Cleo is not quite as unhappy as Sophia, but when it's particularly loud she hides under the coffee table, a place that was always 'den' for the cats when they played games as kittens:


As for Tessie, she apparently thinks we're having an earthquake. She has been running around the house, crying. I think it helped when I picked her up so that she could actually see the diggers, and perhaps see that the noise was coming from something outside... but she is very disturbed:


Tim went back to the UK very early Tuesday morning. Good timing, since the work started about four hours after his flight departed.

Richard's timing is not so good. After working about 50-60 hours per week for many months, he finally decided that he would take a day off so that he could sleep all morning.

Today.

It's hard to think of a worse morning from the point of view of having a peaceful rest...

Disruption in Drosia

I suppose it was a couple of weeks ago that we became aware of the extensive road-works in our neighbourhood. Or perhaps it was a bit longer ago. There are so many random diggers and other disruptions to the roads in Cyprus that we've almost stopped noticing them. But Richard mentioned that he was having to drive a little further to get home, due to diversions, and I could hardly help noticing that there were road-works which I had to skirt carefully while walking to the local shops:


The digger was creating a channel right through the tarmac on the road.

Then our mains water went off for a few hours, about ten days ago. We've got so used to having constant mains water that we no longer store lots of bottles, and I'd just run the washing machine. Thankfully it was on again by lunch-time, a reminder of the days gone by when we only had mains water two or three times per week.

However, it reminded me that, slowly, Cyprus is being converted from septic tanks to mains drainage. I believe it's funded by the EU and was one of the requirements of Cyprus joining the European Union seven years ago. There have been extensive road works in many districts, and apparently it's now our turn. Not that they've reached our street yet. But I continued to take photos when going to the shops - such as these slightly confusing diversion signs:


Or this machine, which our most intelligent cat, Sophia, appears to think is a cat-eating monster. Not that she's seen one for a while, but she was sitting on the balcony one day when a machine of this ilk was turning around, with the 'mouth' apparently opening and closing in her direction. She is not a nervous cat, in general, but I have never seen her so petrified. She hid under my desk for some hours. She will not be happy when the construction workers reach our street.


Here's a glimpse of the new pipes and drainage that are being installed:


The workers seem to be progressing rapidly, possibly hoping to have finished before it gets really hot and humid. They have started work before 7.30 each morning this week, and by today most of the holes had been filled in. The roads look scrappy and dusty - it's probably too much to hope that they'll be nicely re-surfaced, but at least the diversion signs seem to have gone.

Septic tanks in Cyprus

Life in Cyprus is not all sunshine and sailing.

One of the things that often seems to bother visitors to the island is that most buildings are not yet connected to mains drainage, instead relying on septic tanks (otherwise known as cess pits, but that sounds much worse). Thus we can't put toilet paper in the toilet. Instead, we have little bins designed for it. And although it did seem strange at first, we got used to it pretty quickly, so much so that when going back to the UK it feels odd to flush the loo paper again...

But I digress. The one real problem with septic tanks is that sometimes the bacteria stop working, and then the tank starts to overflow, out of the little manhole covers in the back (or side) yard. Which can be rather unpleasant. It happened once at our old house, although it turned out to be a different problem, but as the house was rented we just phoned the landlady who got someone in to drain it. Since then we've seen several such trucks, with long flexible hoses, and rather a bad smell emanating from whatever house they are currently dealing with.

About a week ago, I noticed water seeping out of one of the drain covers here. Uh-oh. Maybe it was due to the excessive rain we've been having, and the large number of extra guests in the flat downstairs. Perhaps, I thought optimistically, it would stop.

It didn't.

However as Richard doesn't always take the car to work, and the drain covers are in the carport behind the car, I didn't think much about it for a couple of days.

By Thursday, there was water seeping not just into the carport but down the street.

I looked in the Yellow Pages for Larnaka, but there was no entry for septic tanks. Or for tanks. There were a few numbers under 'drains', but none of them seemed to be correct. We don't want someone to come and install a drain, we wanted the tank emptied. We know there are companies who do it, we just didn't know how to contact them.

Our neighbours over the street speak good English, but we didn't see them about. Cypriot people keep themselves to themselves much of the time, and we didn't see any of the other neighbours too.

On Friday I had a good idea - a friend of ours who lives just five minutes' walk away has been in Larnaka for over twenty years. Perhaps she would know of a suitable company. So Richard phoned her, and she said yes, they have their tanks cleaned regularly.

Unfortunately, the man they use doesn't speak any English at all.

Fortunately, our friend's husband is Cypriot, so he phoned the man for us. He apparently said he would come on Friday, or possibly Saturday.

I waited in all Friday afternoon (not that I was going anywhere anyway) but he didn't arrive. We were going out with our house group on Friday evening, but we have someone staying in the guest flat, so we asked him to deal with it, if by chance the man arrived in the evening.

He didn't.

On Saturday Richard and Tim went sailing, and I went along to video the new boat. But our guest was still in downstairs.

The man didn't come.

Nor did he come in the afternoon, when I stayed at home. We did wonder if we should call our friends and ask them to phone him again, but we thought perhaps he wouldn't work Saturday evening (Saturday is usually early closing), and he certainly wouldn't work on a Sunday. What's worse, Monday is a public holiday (for Kataklysmos). And there was still water pouring down the street.

At lunch-time, Tim and I went to one of the local churches for a joint service and potluck lunch. Richard had a meeting in Limassol, but didn't leave until about an hour after we did.

During that time, amazingly, the drain-cleaning man came. He did in fact speak about six words of English. He drained the tanks, and discovered that part of the problem was a blockage, so he unblocked it with some large and noisy machine. I'm not sure what would have blocked it; we always tell our guests about the toilet paper problem, and if they forgot once or twice I don't imagine that would cause an entire drain to block.

Anyway, it's now sorted out. It cost us £40 which is quite a high amount for a service of that kind in Cyprus, but I suppose companies can charge what they like for this kind of thing - we have to use them.

Eventually, under European Union regulations, we should have mains drainage installed throughout the island, but I don't know of anywhere in Larnaka where it's actually happened. We've seen the pipes being put in some roads, but connecting all the houses up is going to be a lengthy and expensive process, so it will probably take years.