Cyprus-Forum.com

[Paphitis]

8) my nephew came over and stayed at Coral Bay around a month ago. we had told him there were water shortage problems before he came.
While here no one said anything to him about water shortage and when he asked he was told there is no problem with shortage of water!!!
The other day on 1st April street i saw cars lined up outside a showroom being washed down with a hosepipe....a police car drove by and took no notice at all. Now i dont have a pool and recycle grey water. But its nice to know that paphitis has discovered its the BRITISH that are forcing cyps to go short...
It appears to be anyone on CL that is the problem....so those of us on eastern Cyprus forum are ok and responsible then - well thats ok!~
BOF (not on CL, no pool, no hosepipe, no bigotry)

Now don't get me all wrong. I do not wish to over generalise if at all possible. The British are not solely to blame but are a major contributor to the problem. In order to be fair, I am also critical at other areas of water wastage such as washing cars with a hosepipe instead of using a bucket and sponge, and the Cypriot tradition of washing driveways and porches with running water.

This little banter has reminded me of a social experiment conducted only recently. I will outline the hypothesis in a separate thread if only to encourage lively debate. So stay tuned!

[Paphitis]

Anyone have any idea just when the promised water will be coming from the 'Motherland' please?

My son has invited some of his friends over next month and I am hoping we do not have to subject them to water rations!

This is after all the twenty first century!

Even the mighty space age UK had water rations and hose pipe bans a couple of years ago.

Agreed. The difference being the UK (once under the imposed ban) does not tend to misuse the whole water situation and the powers that be will adhere to the law and actually administer the relevant fines. You cannot say the same for Cyprus

Do you need a top up for your pool???

Why do most Brits come to Cyprus demanding their flash apartments complete with swimming pool and overlooking lush green golf courses. Don't they know that Cyprus has a chronic water shortage or perhaps they do not care!!

No pool mate, next question?

Please stop putting all the onus on the Brits, many Cypriots and other nationalities DO have pools here.

Why not ask for a pool anyway, if that is what you want? You boast year round sunshine, so why not cool off in a pool - makes perfect sense to me!

I think also, that you will find that most 'buyers' may not be aware of such water shortages as the developers will not admit to it!
Heck, I would think twice about buying here if I knew just how backward the water system was!

This island needs educating in water conservation as well as a government who will fulfills its promises (that would be a first for any government worldwide!) with your compatriots in the the main to cease thinking 'there is water in the tap, so there is no problem!

Just for the record - THIS BRIT CARES

Yes you are right. Swimming pools are however proliferating the landscape at a time of a chronic water shortage. Very sad and especially when the island is surrounded by a perfectly good ocean. Maybe the greedy developers have a lot to answer. But then so do the consumers who demand such luxury at the expense of the islands fragile water resources.

You guys even have a forum (CL) which includes the very important subject of "pool maintenance" as one of it's many thrilling topics. The water shortages are also discussed, but the demand for pools still persists. Very hypocitical.

Meanwhile, all Cypriots are now forced to ration water!!!

I know where you are coming from. I am a permanent British resident of Cyprus. Almost every day I leave my third-floor flat (no swimming pool!) and take a walk around my neighbourhood. I walk past house after house with its own private swimming pool in the garden, yet the enticing blue waters of the Mediterranean beckon from a mile below. At a time when we are suffering from water rationing, this makes me shake my head in disbelief.

However, who is to blame? Buyers were enticed into parting with good money to buy these houses no doubt in part because they boasted a private swimming pool. Many of these buyers were foreigners who were bringing currency into the country. Neither the developers nor the buyers of these properties were doing anything illegal. I don't think you can suddenly scapegoat these people now that the dams have run dry.

The uncomfortable truth is that this problem should have been foreseen. Legislation should have been in place long ago to restrict the number of private swimming pools. Ideas like building golf courses in an arid country that has a history of water shortages should have been binned. Sadly these measures were not taken, and it is far to late to shut the stable door now. The horse has long since bolted.

Very good post. I must say that it has been a joy reading your posts lately and your points, as always, are very well received and are balanced.

[BOF]

8) my nephew came over and stayed at Coral Bay around a month ago. we had told him there were water shortage problems before he came.
While here no one said anything to him about water shortage and when he asked he was told there is no problem with shortage of water!!!
The other day on 1st April street i saw cars lined up outside a showroom being washed down with a hosepipe....a police car drove by and took no notice at all. Now i dont have a pool and recycle grey water. But its nice to know that paphitis has discovered its the BRITISH that are forcing cyps to go short...
It appears to be anyone on CL that is the problem....so those of us on eastern Cyprus forum are ok and responsible then - well thats ok!~
BOF (not on CL, no pool, no hosepipe, no bigotry)

Now don't get me all wrong. I do not wish to over generalise if at all possible. The British are not solely to blame but are a major contributor to the problem. In order to be fair, I am also critical at other areas of water wastage such as washing cars with a hosepipe instead of using a bucket and sponge, and the Cypriot tradition of washing driveways and porches with running water.

This little banter has reminded me of a social experiment conducted only recently. I will outline the hypothesis in a separate thread if only to encourage lively debate. So stay tuned!

I am glad you take my post in the light hearted way it was intended..
i know no race is perfect and each has it different traits
BOF

[BenLex]

Water shortage was becoming very apparent when we were out in April. As for the British causing it - I didn't hear anything on that score. HOWEVER, it is noticeable that lots of the villas have very "English" gardens - full of plants that require not only a cooler climate but lots of water. We planted stuff I remembered from the hills of Provence - lavender, thyme, rosemary, olive, etc. What has survived (which is most) is very healthy and doesn't need any watering.
As for car washing, dry brushing works nearly as well!

[SSBubbles]

I thought I was doing my bit by not washing my car and I get used to people staring at its growing layer of muck, but I have to applaud the owner of the Peugeot 307 I followed down (or was it up?) Makarios Avenue last night as they had the dirtiest car I have ever seen on this island! It was minging! Thank God they had working back windscreen wipers is all I can say!

Well done - that woman or man; you get my 'filthiest car' award, July 2008

[BenLex]

What water from the 'motherland'? They have their own problems - not least of which is that the water infrastructure for much of Athens, largely installed by the Americans post-War, has not been maintained (surprise surprise) and they have catastrophic leakage problems, not to mention their own building boom, lack of rain, etc.
Problem remains: Cyprus does not have the port facilities for offloading water in sufficient quantity, even if there was a country in the region that doesn't have its own water shortage issues.
Desalination: the original desal plant has been allowed to fall into such disrepair that it can't be used - and as at April there was no project to build another which, in any case, would take 3-4 years to come on-stream.
Best hope at the moment: enforce ban on water-using construction, only grey water to be used for watering gardens, produce cheap kits that can re-cycle grey water (from showers, washing machines) for loo flushing and give one to each household in Cyprus.

[SSBubbles]

[quote="BenLex"]What water from the 'motherland'? They have their own problems - not least of which is that the water infrastructure for much of Athens, largely installed by the Americans post-War, has not been maintained (surprise surprise) and they have catastrophic leakage problems, not to mention their own building boom, lack of rain, etc.
Problem remains: Cyprus does not have the port facilities for offloading water in sufficient quantity, even if there was a country in the region that doesn't have its own water shortage issues.
Desalination: the original desal plant has been allowed to fall into such disrepair that it can't be used - and as at April there was no project to build another which, in any case, would take 3-4 years to come on-stream.
Best hope at the moment: enforce ban on water-using construction, only grey water to be used for watering gardens, produce cheap kits that can re-cycle grey water (from showers, washing machines) for loo flushing and give one to each household in Cyprus.[/quote




Weather closes taps on Greek water imports

Unloading likely to be delayed until Sunday

BAD weather has prevented the unloading of the first batch of water transported from Greece by tanker, with a further delay until Sunday being the latest forecast.

District Director of the Water Development Department Nicodemos Nicodemou said yesterday that, due to strong winds and undersea currents in the Yermasoyia area, the pipes would not keep still.

This made it impossible for the work to proceed smoothly resulting in a 48 - hour delay.

He nevertheless noted that as the results of the water quality tests would not be ready before Friday or Saturday, it did not make much difference any way.

The first shipment of water arrived at Limassol port on Monday and was scheduled to go ashore by Wednesday, but despite a blessing ceremony by Archbishop Chrysostomos, it is still waiting offshore.

Michalis Ioannides, Director of Ocean Tankers that won the contract for the transportation of the water, said that the greatest challenge facing them was the alignment of the articulated 1,300m undersea pipe with the single buoy mooring and the land pipe.

"By this afternoon or late tonight the undersea pipe is scheduled to be submerged and joined to the buoy mooring," he was quoted as saying yesterday.

Nicodemou said that according to company representatives the sea pipe would be stabilised, so it would not be affected by weather conditions, allowing it to be joined to the buoy and the land pipe.

The single buoy mooring, fastened with several anchors to the seabed, would serve both as a mooring for the tanker and as an outlet to pump the water to shore.

Chlorine

Following the completion of the whole procedure and before any water went on shore, Nicodemou said that the pipe would be flushed with chlorine in order to cleanse and sterilise it.

Cyprus has bought 8 million cu.m of water from Greece, half the quantity it needs this year. It will be transported in 50,000 cu.m daily installments using six tankers until November-December.

Meanwhile, Cypriots have been facing water rationing since the middle of March due to the protracted drought that has depleted its reservoirs.

The situation was recently aggravated by a breakdown of one of the island’s two desalination plants at Dhekelia, due to a power cut. Paralimni and Larnaca were badly affected by the failure.

On Tuesday the same desalination unit encountered yet another electrical problem, which put it out of order again.

Copyright (C) 2008 Cyprus Weekly

[Bill]

Desalination: the original desal plant has been allowed to fall into such disrepair that it can't be used - and as at April there was no project to build another which, in any case, would take 3-4 years to come on-stream.
Best hope at the moment: enforce ban on water-using construction, only grey water to be used for watering gardens, produce cheap kits that can re-cycle grey water (from showers, washing machines) for loo flushing and give one to each household in Cyprus.

I can't agree about the desal plants in Larnaca ~ both are working at full output and apart from a glitch last week when a electrical component died during a power cut at one of the plants they have been on full output for ages.

They could produce more but the quaility would suffer a little and it wouldn't be exactly to EU specs.

The problem has been that the previous government has stuck it's head in the sand for to long ~ in both a solution to the problem and enforcing a hose pipe ban with heavy fines ~ sadly niether would be popular so we have ended up in this mess .

Bill

[SSBubbles]

Anyone any update on this water shortage please?

I have heard rumours that it was to be cut off today (ours has come on as normal - hopefully for the 12 hours!) and Webbo read somewhere that there will be no water as from August 10th as ALL the damns will be dried-up!?

Any help will be appreciated, thanks

[purdey]

Does anyone know Bubbles ?
I must admit I cannot understand if there is only a little water left why are the tourist areas not been restricted, and the likes of Paphos just seem to carry on as normal.