Flood control projects in 21 areas of the fire-stricken communities of mountainous Limassol have responded to the rainfall so far, stated the Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment, Maria Panayiotou, expressing her satisfaction with the completion of the projects within the time frames.
Accompanied by the Director General of the Ministry, Andreas Grigoriou, and officials from the departments involved, Maria Panayiotou inspected, on Friday morning, flood control works in the area, assuring that, if the need for additional interventions is identified, they will be carried out.
In her statements at a flood control project in the Souni-Zanatzia community, she stated that, in a very short period of time, the Water Development Department identified the 21 points where cabions (stone-filled gabions) needed to be installed, in an area 120 kilometers long, and noted that "quickly and on schedule, everything has been completed since November."
"We are currently essentially completing the inspection of these points, because we want to make sure that they serve the purpose for which they were placed," he said, indicating that "they responded to the latest rainfall we had."
At the same time, he stressed that if other interventions need to be made, they will be done quickly, however, he stated that "the information I have received from the Department of Water Development is that they are fully satisfied with the way they operated and it seems that at this stage they do not need any other interventions, but we are certainly here to make sure that this will continue in the coming days."
He also thanked the Department of Water Development, the five different contractors and the approximately 50 people who worked to complete the flood control projects, costing approximately half a million euros, as well as the local authorities "without whose help they could not have been completed so quickly."
Noting that it has not yet rained satisfactorily, the Minister of Agriculture stated that "we should have been supplied, we should have placed them in a timely manner and be ready for any weather phenomenon that may arise."
Noting that no inflow has been observed in the dams from the rainfall so far, he emphasized that the Ministry continues to work, with planning, on the basis of three pillars, which concern strengthening the water balance with conventional sources, such as desalination, strengthening the network, with water projects worth 200 million euros, but also creating water awareness.
He also conveyed that everyone can contribute and make savings, since, as he said, measurements show that Cypriot citizens over-consume and waste water.
"We are not asking people to reduce their quality of life, nor to have water run out of their homes. We are asking that it be on average, we are asking people to turn off the tap for two minutes, because two minutes is all we need to be in a much better situation," he added.
Maria Panayiotou was asked about the compensation to farmers affected by the devastating fire, saying that direct payments for compensation for loss of income, for one year, to approximately 1400 eligible farmers and livestock breeders have been completed.
"It is an amount of around 3,3 million euros and we are currently working on reactivation," he said, adding that "we have just under a thousand applications for reactivation, the first advances have been made and we are continuing."
Each farmer, he explained, receives his advance payment so that he can start and, depending on the progress of his projects, receives his compensation, and he emphasized that the procedures are fast.
Finally, he assured that the Ministry stands by them, but also by all the communities, with which "there is excellent cooperation", while indicating that "any farmer, any livestock breeder who needs help, we are here with advances, with simplified procedures to stand by the people".
The community leader of Sounio-Zanatzia, Nikos Vikis, expressed his satisfaction with the flood control works, thanking the Minister and the Department of Water Development, which "stood with us from the very beginning, both in terms of damage and in the network."
Regarding the issue of compensation, he stated that the affected residents received money and began to rebuild their homes, while notices have been sent for the cleaning of burned trees located on private property.
"In a month, those who don't respond, we will come in, with loggers, with permits, because we will have a problem if they are not cleaned up," he added.
