Water shortage knows no boundaries

THE WORSENING water shortage plaguing Cyprus and the region will be the focus of the Third Mediterranean Agriculture Forum, being held in Cyprus on October 26-27.

Some 80 representatives from European and Mediterranean countries, including Turkey, Israel, Egypt and Tunisia, are expected to participate in the forum, along with delegates from the Republic and from Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus.

“The water problem will be the most serious problem Cyprus will have to tackle, barring the division and continuing Turkish occupation of part of the island,” House deputy Takis Hadjidemetriou said yesterday.

The drought, approaching its fourth straight year, “concerns all the people of Cyprus, as it knows no boundaries and tolerates no dividing walls,” the deputy said, in his capacity as vice-chairman of the Sub-Committee on Food of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly.

The two-day forum is being conducted in collaboration with the Mediterranean Committee of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers and the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies.

Agriculture Minister Costas Themistocleous is to address the gathering, as may also Interior Minister Dinos Michaelides.

The regional forum will present its conclusions to the plenary of the CoE’s Parliamentary Assembly.

Hadjidemetriou said the delegates from Turkey were most welcome to attend, provided they entered Cyprus through its legal ports of entry, and not through any entry point touching on the Turkish-occupied northern part of the island.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.