Filenews 26 March 2025 - by Dora Christodoulou
The new deadline for the submission of bids for the mobile desalination plant of Paphos, which will operate in the Peyia area, expires today and the local authorities are waiting with obvious anxiety to see whether the process will be initiated today or whether we will go to the fourth postponement in a row. The issue is already acquiring critical dimensions in the wider area of western low Paphos, given that after the disaster at the Mavrokolymbou dam, the first water supply problems in the area have already appeared.
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, not 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 today.
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 the 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.
