1 week Ago
The government came to the country’s rescue this week, saving the day at the last minute like a Marvel superhero. This was how the arrangement for the delivery of 15 mobile desalination units from the United Arab Emirates was presented by the government spokesman on Thursday, after President Nikos Christodoulides had announced the news in an interview on Antenna TV on Wednesday night. More importantly, the units would be offered free of charge, said Christodoulides, “within the context of the excellent diplomatic relations we have” with the UAE; and they would be sent “immediately in order to cover the country’s water needs for 2025.
” The following day, spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis continued with the celebratory tone, announcing that thanks to the government’s “intensive efforts” the “solution of the issue has been achieved as regards the danger of water cuts in the summer.” The units “with a capacity for 15,000 cubic metres per day, would cover the needs we have so that the Cyprus Republic is not in danger of suffering water cuts,” he added. The urgent need for an immediate solution arose after the destruction at the desalination plant in Paphos, although water shortages existed before this, especially in the agricultural sector, which saw the supply of water for irrigation being reduced by as much as 50 per cent in some parts of the island last year.
And given the low rainfall of the last few months things could have only got worse for the farmers. Reservoirs are 23.5 per cent full and farmers’ associations have described the situation as tragic while demanding that their sector is given priority in the sharing out of water, something highly unlikely as we enter the tourist season with record numbers of visitors expected.
Will the stop-gap measure arranged by the government see us through the year? Will the mobile units produce the 15,000 cubic metres to cover our basic water needs and will they be up and running on time to do so? Nobody can answer these questions before the units have actually been put into operation and are pumping water that ends up in the supply system. Reports suggest the units will arrive towards the end of June and could require another two months to be operational. This is assuming that they are in good condition and would not require time-consuming maintenance or repair work.
And who would operate the units, once they are ready, considering there are no people here with technical knowledge to do so? Desalination plants currently serving Cyprus are run by contractors, so the operation of the units will have to be contracted out, presumably via tenders, which could take a long time to be completed. Nothing has been said about the cost of operating the mobile units, which are powered by fossil fuel and will result in more carbon emissions and bigger fines that will be incorporated into our electricity bills. Then there is the question of whether we will have adequate power for these mobile units, or would there be power cuts to ensure there are no water cuts? What we are facing today are the consequences of the consistent failure of successive governments to put together a comprehensive plan for managing our limited water resources despite facing droughts every few years, a problem that existed long before climate change appeared.
More recently, with the population growing and needs increasing, we have been relying on desalination for water, which is costly and environmentally unfriendly, while nothing is done for the efficient management of water resources. Why, for example, have we not set up plants to treat waste water that could be used for irrigation? Why are the authorities still allowing the creation of golf courses (another is opening in the summer)? Why are there no incentives for consumers to save water and penalties for houses consuming too much? When the government implements a comprehensive plan for efficiently, rationally and economically managing our water resources – a plan that minimises the effects of droughts – it can celebrate. We hope the stop-gap measure announced will tackle the water problem this year, but a long-term plan is an imperative.
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