Turkish Cypriot firm gets Unficyp water contract

NEWSPAPERS in the north reported yesterday that Unficyp had awarded a contract for bottled water to a Turkish Cypriot firm.

Kibris said Unficyp would use the Turkish Cypriot ‘Trodos’ mineral water produced by a company called EL-SU Trade and Industries Ltd. EL-SU began bottling the water two months ago.

The newspaper added that Farmakas, a Greek Cypriot water company had supplied Unficyp in 1999. Representatives of the company could not be reached yesterday to confirm the reports, and Unficyp spokesman Charles Gaulkin had no knowledge of the development.

Gaulkin said that, as far as he was aware, Unficyp used a central tap water supply system with filtration facilities, and the force was not supplied with bottled water across the board.

“There has not been any UN contract for bottled water for any supplier but it is possible that a local unit has made some arrangement,” he said.

Unficyp does have a general policy of advertising tenders on both sides, he added, but, until now, prices from the north were not competitive, so contracts for items such as fruit and vegetables have come from suppliers in the south 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.