{"id":9924,"date":"2025-04-16T00:00:31","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T21:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/env4cyp.eu\/?p=9924"},"modified":"2025-05-07T15:43:26","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T12:43:26","slug":"addressing-the-causes-of-the-fire-at-koutsoventis-gungor-landfill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/env4cyp.eu\/gr\/addressing-the-causes-of-the-fire-at-koutsoventis-gungor-landfill\/","title":{"rendered":"Addressing the Causes of the Fire at Koutsoventis\/G\u00fcng\u00f6r Landfill"},"content":{"rendered":"
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16 April 2025, By Brian McCarthy | Waste Management Expert<\/strong><\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n<\/div><\/div>\n\t\t

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On 10 April 2025, a devastating fire erupted at the Koutsoventis\/G\u00fcng\u00f6r landfill in the Turkish Cypriot community. As the flames consumed the site, endangering nearby communities and polluting the environment, the incident validates concerns raised by the Environmental Capacity Building (Env4Cyp) project financed by the European Union.<\/p>\n

In April 2024, under the EU-funded Capacity Building on Environment in the Turkish Cypriot Community project, the European Commission supported a comprehensive technical assessment of the landfill. Conducted by an expert team from Env4Cyp. The assessment highlighted that the site had been seriously compromised by operational deficiencies, unmanaged leachate, explosive landfill gas build-up, and\u2014most notably\u2014an already active underground fire affecting approximately 10% of the landfill area.\n<\/p><\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n<\/div><\/div>\n\t\t

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The 2024 report laid out a clear roadmap of emergency and long-term actions required to rehabilitate the site, safeguard the environment, and prevent repeated fire outbreaks. Chief among these was the urgent need to extinguish the existing sub-surface fire, stabilise slopes, reinstate the leachate treatment system, and restore gas management infrastructure. The report highlighted that without immediate intervention, the risk of explosion, annual large fires and site collapse would continue.<\/p>\n

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While some steps to address the causes of the fire have been taken\u2014including the introduction of new machinery\u2014many of the report\u2019s core recommendations have not yet been implemented. The lack of a technically competent operator, with oversight from an assigned client authority, and sufficient financial and professional resources, remains unresolved. The gas extraction system continues to vent uncontrolled methane, posing serious risk to the environment and health and safety. The leachate system has not been rehabilitated, and critically, the underground fire has not been extinguished.\n<\/p><\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n<\/div><\/div>\n\t\t

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Figure 1: Summary of main critical findings from the landfill site assessment (identified hotspots (fires) highlighted by stars.
\nSource: Koutsoventis\/G\u00fcng\u00f6r Technical Assistance: Site Assessment and Recommendations. Env4Cyp, 2024.<\/em><\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n<\/div><\/div>\n\t\t

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The incident is a stark and urgent reminder of the cost of failing to act on evidence-based guidance in the environmental sector.<\/p>\n

The 2024 report was part of a broader EU effort to enhance environmental governance in the waste and resource management sector in the TCc. The EU continues to support environmental initiatives and actions, but the responsibility to implement essential reforms and actions rests locally.<\/p>\n

The latest fire outbreak does not mark the end of the story\u2014rather it can be a catalyst for ramping up serious policy engagement in the sector. The technical assessment provided a comprehensive and viable plan. It has now been backed up by a report on a sustainable funding model for waste disposal services in the Turkish Cypriot community, and a contingency action plan. These follow-on outputs will be presented and discussed with involved stakeholders in the coming months.<\/p>\n

If the remaining recommendations are now acted upon with urgency and commitment, the site can still be stabilised, its operational life extended, and the surrounding environment protected. However, if steps are delayed or disregarded, another fire outbreak is not just possible, but likely.<\/p>\n

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Figure 2: A thermal imaging camera was used to identify hot spots and a CO\/CO2<\/sub> gas analyser used to measure for presence of Carbon Monoxide which is good indicator of active fire. Source: Koutsoventis\/G\u00fcng\u00f6r Technical Assistance: Site Assessment and Recommendations. Env4Cyp, 2024.<\/em><\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n<\/div><\/div>\n\t\t

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Brian McCarthy<\/h2>Discover More<\/span><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n<\/div><\/div>\n\t\t
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The content of this blog is the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.<\/em><\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"16 April 2025, By Brian McCarthy | Waste Management Expert On 10 April 2025, a devastating fire erupted at the Koutsoventis\/G\u00fcng\u00f6r landfill in the Turkish...","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9939,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_view_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9924","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environmental-data"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/env4cyp.eu\/gr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/env4cyp.eu\/gr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/env4cyp.eu\/gr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/env4cyp.eu\/gr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/env4cyp.eu\/gr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9924"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/env4cyp.eu\/gr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10023,"href":"https:\/\/env4cyp.eu\/gr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9924\/revisions\/10023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/env4cyp.eu\/gr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/env4cyp.eu\/gr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/env4cyp.eu\/gr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/env4cyp.eu\/gr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}