Filenews 24 September 2025 - by Dora Christodoulou
The Desalination Plant in Kouklia, which was put out of operation due to a fire on December 6, has been fully restored by the contractor and will now operate normally.
As "F" is informed by a competent source, the reopening of the Unit began gradually the day before yesterday, Sunday, with a daily production of 5000 cubic meters of water and with the aim in the first stage to carry out its test quality operation, that is, to confirm primarily whether the water produced is of the required quality to be channelled into the network.
This, according to the same sources, was indeed confirmed, which led yesterday to the increase in daily production to 15,000 cubic meters per day, which is also the conventional capacity of the Unit. This is the second trial stage and concerns the quantitative operation of the unit.
And this trial test proved to be completely successful, as a result of which the water produced for this two days was channelled into the network and from today the permanent and normal operation of the Kouklia unit was formalized.
According to the same sources, in the first stage the unit will operate on the basis of 15,000 cubic meters of daily production, based on the contract signed with the contractor, while in the coming months and before the summer of 2026 there will be a renegotiation between the State and the contractor to increase the quantity produced by the Kouklia unit.
With the full restoration and operation of the Unit, the smoother water supply of the Paphos district is ensured, enhancing water sufficiency, it is emphasized in yesterday's relevant announcement of the Water Department.
Now, if everything goes smoothly from today, as the trial two days that preceded it became apparent, this will also mean the serious relief of the Asprokremmos refinery, which is currently working at full speed from the destruction of the Desalination Plant until today, pumping significant amounts of water from the Asprokremmos dam.
Having now 15,000 cubic meters production from the repaired unit and another 2,000 per day from the mobile unit of Kissonerga, this means that the Asprokremmos refinery will need to produce only 13,000 per day, given that during this period the needs of the low-lying Paphos area according to the Water Department amount to 30,000 cubic meters per day.
This relief of the Asprokremmos refinery, a competent source stressed to "F", is of enormous importance. On the one hand, because it will give the opportunity to carry out a maintenance in this unit that worked for about a year in the "red" and on the other hand, a significant amount of water that was removed from the Asprokremmos reservoir to go to the refinery will now be saved.
