The rainfall of the last few months has not substantially changed things drastically for the banana growers and other growers of Paphos, with the risk to the future of crops still visible this year.
This is emphasized by growers in low-lying western Paphos who express anxiety and fear about the sufficiency of water for irrigation this year as well, after the nightmarish summer they spent in 2025.
The president of the Paphos Banana Producers' Committee, Moses Pegeiotis, told "F" that producers are very concerned about the emerging irrigation policy and the quantities of water that will be made available to them this year as well. The problem, he stressed, cannot be solved without drastic policies and solutions. The viability of our crops is still at risk, he said.
The recent meeting of banana producers and other farmers that took place in Pegeia, Mr. Pegeiotis pointed out, stressed the need to significantly strengthen the availability of other quantities of water from desalination, otherwise, as he characteristically said, the risk of a permanent tombstone being put on banana cultivation in our country is visible.
The producers decided to immediately proceed with demarches and representations to the Government, in order to accelerate the upgrade of the desalination plant in Kouklia so that it can produce 30,000 tons of water per day as soon as possible instead of the 15 it produces so far.
They also request that the water stored again in the Mavrokolimbos dam, after the repair of the damage, be made available for the irrigation of the permanent plantations of the Pegeia area.
