By Anthony O. Miller
THE GOVERNMENT will oppose in court Larnaca’s successful court action this week to halt construction of the desalination plant being built on the outskirts of the municipality, government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou said yesterday.
Papapetrou acknowledged Larnaca Mayor George Lycourgos had successfully obtained an interim order – without even the contractor’s presence in court – ordering that work halted on what is planned as the island’s second major desalination plant.
The island’s sole desalination facility, at Dhekelia, turns out 40,000 cubic metres of water per day – about the summer needs of Nicosia – and the Larnaca plant is planned to an identical output capacity.
The Larnaca Court order was apparently granted on grounds the contractor lacked a building permit for the desalination plant, according to Water Development Department (WDD) Senior Water Engineer Nicos Tsiourtis.
But Papapetrou agreed with Tsiourtis that the government “does not need” a building permit for projects of a national nature.
After conferring with Agriculture Minister Costas Themistocleous, ultimate boss of the WDD, Papapetrou said: “The government will oppose the order in court.”
“It will not terminate the contract” with the Israeli consortium building the desalination plant. “It will object to the order, which is an interim order,” Papapetrou said.
“I think,” Papapetrou added, “that the employer in this case is the government itself, so the government will be a party in the process” of defending the contractor against Lycourgos’ suit.
Tsiourtis said the matter was under study by Attorney-general Alecos Markides, whose schedule did not permit his comment on the matter.
Lycourgos, who is planning to go abroad today, was also unavailable for comment.
Tsiourtis painted a gloomy picture of Cyprus’ water prospects if the Larnaca desalination plant was not allowed to be completed.
He noted winter rains had so far been patchy, much less than expected or needed to get the island safely through another year without even stricter rationing, as it enters its fifth straight year of drought, the worst in its history.
He said water levels behind state dams yesterday were identical to what they were one year ago – 29 million cubic metres, or about 10.6 per cent of total reservoir capacity.
He said if the island continued to draw those levels down, and winter rains did not replenish them, the situation this summer could be “very bad.”
