Filenews 7 December 2024 - by Dora Christodoulou
While with the first light of day began the investigations of the competent authorities into the causes that caused the total destruction of the Pafos Desalination Plant by the fire that broke out early last night and raged all night, the alarming situation that this disaster now creates in the water balance and mainly in the water supply and irrigation of Pafos is now at the heart of the processes.
Representatives of the Water Department, the Ministry of Agriculture, the president of the Pafos EDA Pambos Pittokopitis and MPs of the district directly speak of a significant impact on the efforts made to address the water problem. The unit destroyed by the fire contributed about 1/3 of the water that Pafos needs for its water supply, while in off-season periods, such as the one we are going through, this percentage became even higher, they stressed. Now, plans and strategies are necessarily adjusted in order to avoid interruptions in the water supply of the city and district of Pafos, they said, with the obvious burden on other sources, such as dams and boreholes.
On Monday, a scheduled meeting with the Water Department is taking place at the Ministry of Agriculture, during which the primary issue to be examined will now be the destruction of the Pafos desalination plant and the actions to be taken in immediate time to compensate for the losses that this disaster creates in the water supply of the district. It is also expected, according to competent officials, that this total destruction will accelerate the operation procedures of new desalination plants on the island.
On the ground, the firefighting forces were fighting an all-night battle to extinguish the fire at the facilities located on the beach between Kouklia and Mandria and finally the fire was extinguished at dawn, having caused total destruction to the central building complex. Both the construction materials of the unit, as well as the highly flammable materials stored there for the operation of the unit, contributed, according to the principles of the Fire Service, to the rapid spread of the fire, making the work of its complete extinguishing particularly difficult and time-consuming.
The Fire Brigade with strong ground forces brought the fire under partial control two hours after it broke out, at 7:00 pm yesterday, while the fire was fully extinguished in the morning hours today. With its complete extinguishing and with the first light of day, the examinations for the causes that caused it began, while it preliminarily seems that the fire started in a storage area for plastic materials and flammable substances, used for the operation of the unit's facilities. An autonomous area in which larger quantities of chemicals are stored was protected by the fire brigades who prevented the spread of the fire to it, which would have created even more problems in the surrounding area.
At the time of the fire, two officers of the unit were in the area, who managed to evacuate immediately without endangering their lives.
