Filenews 24 March 2025 - by Dora Christodoulou
While the deadline for the submission of tenders for the mobile desalination plant of Paphos, which will operate in the Peyia area, is going from postponement to postponement, the first water supply problems in the area have already made their appearance. Last week, for an entire 24-hour period, areas of the Municipality, mainly in the Coral Bay area, were left without water for a whole day, with the officials of the Municipality of Akamas expressing fears for a summer where visitors will go on vacation with a problematic water supply.
The Mayor of Akamas, Marinos Lambrou, confirmed the borderline situation to "F", speaking of the immediate need to find solutions before the tourist season begins. In fact, he revealed that the municipal authority itself is already studying ways in which it could intervene by providing solutions while waiting for the final solutions from the state side, excluding the possibility that the Municipality will operate a small desalination plant if this proves technically and economically feasible.
The pressure on the local authority is increasing dramatically, after the continuous postponements in the submission of bids for the mobile desalination plant that the state has decided to operate in the municipal area. After February 4, when the deadline normally expired, an extension of two more weeks was given, at the end of which a new extension was given, which now expires on March 26.
This time inconsistency de facto already cancels the planning for the operation of the desalination plant in November and postpones it for the winter. Therefore, we must now deal with the problem of the summer, said Mr. Lambrou, and in this context, the Municipality of Akamas and the EDA of Paphos will try to include other boreholes and springs in the water supply system.
Mayor Akamas said that the Asprokremmos refinery produces 30 thousand cubic meters of water per day and the needs are for 40 thousand cubic meters of water. The problem is frightening, he said, which is why cuts in water supply will be imposed from May in all areas supplied by the refinery and not only in the Municipality of Akamas. Our Municipality, he stressed, is in a much more difficult position in the summer as a tourist Municipality with a very large number of visitors.
