The President of the Tourism Development and Promotion Company of Famagusta and Mayor of Ayia Napa, Mr. Christos Zannettos, requests in his letter the immediate intervention of the President of the Republic on the issue of delays in the regeneration of the Liopetriou River.
In the letter dated April 19, 2024, Mr. Zannettou points out that the immediate and decisive intervention of the President of the Republic and the competent government departments is necessary to immediately resolve the issues that keep the Liopetriou River stuck, while the reconstruction projects should have to be completed by March 2023. Instead, as the President of ETAP Famagusta argues in his letter, one extension follows another, in September four years will be completed since the start of the reconstruction works and no one is in a position to know when deliver the work in question. Indicatively, it states that while initially an extension was given until May 2024 for the delivery of the project, this was moved to July 1, 2024, however, at the rate at which the works are moving (they are only close to 50% of what is required for the completion of the project) , there is no chance that they will be completed by the new set date.
In the letter, special emphasis is placed on the negative impact that this inaction has on professional fishermen, on the commercial properties operating on the Liopetriou River whose viability is threatened, but also on the large number of families whose quality of life has been drastically affected in recent years by this development. He even calls on the state to succumb to these problems and provide solutions for those affected.
At the same time, the regeneration of the Liopetriou River is one of the most important development projects in the region, which opens up important perspectives for the tourism sector, the effort made to upgrade the tourist product and the strengthening of special forms of tourism that the country so desperately needs us. Unfortunately, as stated in the letter, the former attraction for thousands of tourists and visitors has remained a construction site in recent years.
It calls on the state to move immediately and decisively with the aim of immediately completing all the works on the Liopetriou River and delivering the project in the form agreed upon on the basis of the contract. "Delays such as these in the rehabilitation of the Liopetriou River cannot be tolerated and accepted," the letter states.