By Bouli Hadjioannou
GOVERNMENT policy is not to supply new golf courses with a single drop of water from the island’s dams and any such project will have to rely on water from sewage treatment plants, Agriculture Minister Costas Petrides said yesterday.
A planned 18-hole golf course near Petra tou Romiou will, however, be entitled to water from Asprokremmos dam under an earlier 1993 agreement, but only once the water needs of Paphos district are met. This means that supply will be cut off in times of drought.
Petrides was responding to a barrage of criticism in the House Agriculture Committee that precious water was being wasted on golf courses at a time when Cyprus was going through a severe drought.
The issue was raised by Committee chairman Christos Mavrokordatos of Akel who urged the government to revoke the 1993 agreement.
“At a time when we are forced to make water cuts, when we keep saying we do not even have water to drink, huge amounts of water will go to a golf course,” he said.
The Akel deputy was more specific.
“This agreement provides for two million tons of water a year for an 18- hole golf course which belongs to a private company. That is the amount of water all the island’s potato growers are being given this year in order to cultivate their crop,” he said.
Mavrokordatos, backed by agricultural organisations, said the government should declare the agreement null and void on the grounds that the company in question had been slow to get the project under way.
Petrides countered it was the Vassiliou and not the Clerides government which had signed the deal in the first place, two weeks before the February 1993 elections.
“We inherited the situation. We nevertheless asked the Attorney-general whether the agreement could be revoked. The legal advice we received was that if we did there was a possibility the company could sue for sizeable compensation,” Petrides said.
But the minister added that it was wrong to create the impression that farmers were being deprived of precious water in order to irrigate a golf course.
“The project has not started, therefore no water is being supplied. Moreover, the agreement clearly states that water will be supplied only after the water needs of Paphos are met. This means that, had the golf course been operating now when we have a drought, it would have dried up,” he said.
On the more general issue of golf courses, the government has made clear it would not give any water from the island’s dams. Projects will have to make do with water from sewage treatment plants. A planned golf course east of Limassol will be irrigated with water from the Limassol plant, the Dromolaxia project will rely on the Larnaca sewage treatment plant, while the Ayia Napa course will only be allowed once the Ayia Napa-Paralimni sewage project is complete, he said.
On the more specific issue of whether the government could cancel the agreement for the Asprokremmos water citing delay in the project, government officials said the whole issue had been referred to the Attorney- general’s office for legal advice.
But they said that the company had long submitted proposals and other plans to the town planning department for approval, and these were in the process of being considered.
The proposed project includes tourist villas, shops, a three-star hotel and a golf club with a club house.
