Cyprus: After the catastrophic fires, problems from the heavy rains

The heavy rains of the last days caused problems in Melini, with closed roads and erosion of crops, said the Commonwealth Christoforos Alekou to KYPE.

He added that "after the catastrophic fires that occurred last summer in mountainous Larnaca, the mountains are now dead. Due to the intense and extreme weather events that have occurred in Cyprus in recent days, the volume of rain that fell in a short time, created problems in the Community and in combination with the fact that the mountains did not hold water, large amounts of rainwater ended up in village because the pipelines could not absorb such large amounts of rain ".

Melini, he continued, "is built at the foot of the mountains and for this very reason the large quantities of water were channeled to the fields with the result that the agricultural crops were eroded and large pits were opened. The damage and the catastrophes are very big ".

Answering a relevant question, Mr. Alekou said that "the extreme weather phenomena observed in recent days and the damage caused to fields and crops are the second blow to the residents of the area in a few months."

He also said that from Monday, January 10, after heavy rains, the Community Council mobilized an excavator, which opens rural roads, but also the main road, which due to a problem remained closed for two hours and vehicles could not move. "These problems have been overcome because we have provided some immediate solutions, but the residents are anxious," he said.

The Commonwealth of Melini expressed satisfaction for the fact that "we caught up and the big flood protection project was created over the village, which with the recent rains did a very good job. "If the flood defenses had not been carried out just above the village, we would have been buried under tons of mud on Monday," he said.

He justified, he said, "the efforts and pressures exerted on the Government after the summer fire for the implementation of anti-corrosion and anti-slip projects in the mountains, which were burned and deforested by green, which acts as a natural embankment in such cases."

As Mr. Alekou explained, "the first phase of anti-corrosion works in the fire-affected areas of mountainous Larnaca was implemented in the period October-November based on proposals from a scientific team of the University of Athens that visited the area two weeks after the July 4 disaster."

Source: KYPE