CITY water boards expect to tighten rationing this summer, but do not plan any rate rises, since parliamentary approval would be needed for that – and the House of Representatives has been sitting on rate-hike requests ever since 1992.
This was the verdict from Nicosia and Larnaca water boards following the Water Development Department (WDD) announcement this week of government water allocations to cities this summer.
Limassol’s water board was unavailable for comment, and Paphos, with two-thirds of the island’s reservoir water behind its dams, faces few, if any, summer water problems.
But Limassol is sure to face cutbacks this summer, as it got only a 38 per cent state water allocation this summer, down from 40.1 per cent last year. Nicosia’s share rose to 46.6 per cent (from 44.6 per cent last year), while Larnaca got the remaining 15.4 per cent, close to its 15.3 per cent of 1999.
The new urban allocations were required not only to account for population differences, but because the drought cut this year’s rains to a mere 61 per cent of normal for the meteorological year, which began on October 1.
This has left state reservoirs 85 per cent empty – holding a mere 42 million cubic metres of water, down from 68 million cubic metres last April.
The state Water Development Department is not raising the cost of water to urban water boards, chief engineer Nicos Tsiourtis said yesterday.
The Nicosia Water Board is following suit. But if it wanted to raise rates it couldn’t without House approval, General Manager Charalambos Palantzis said. And, given the House’s track record, he put the chance of that at near zero.
But he said the board would probably cut the hours per day that water flows to homes and businesses in the capital – from the current 10 hours three days a week, to about eight hours on those three days.
Nicosia last sought permission to raise rates (by 17 per cent) in 1992, and is still awaiting an answer, Palantzis said.
And he shuddered at the thought of resubmitting a new request reflecting current conditions, as that would mean starting the process all over again – with no more chance of success than back in 1992.
Even if the House approved the old request, it would merely address conditions that were relevant eight years ago, Palantzis said. "Actually, I do not expect there is going to be any approval," he added.
Besides, he said, with the water shortage biting so hard, the Nicosia Board would find it hard to seek a steeper rise.
For any higher rise, he said, the board would wait until 2001, "when we expect the (water) problems to be completely solved," as the Larnaca desalination plant is due on-line.
"When the new desalination unit provides the people of Nicosia with 24-hour service, "we shall revise the tariffs according to the actual real cost of the water," he said.
Larnaca Water Board Chairman, District Officer Kypros Mattheou, and his technical manager Aristides Adamou both echoed Palantzis, noting they too had been waiting since 1992 for the House to approve a water rate rise.
"It’s not a rational (rate) revision," Mattheou said, since it is "based on the 1992 situation." Nonetheless, he chuckled, it is a "pending request… still before the House of Representatives."
Adamou acknowledged that "severe cuts" were likely be announced for the town in a few days.
Larnaca, like Nicosia, now gets water three days a week, 8-10 hours a day, Adamou said. "If there is any cut, we will be obliged to pump two times a week. This would mean longer hours per time" – though not enough to compensate for the cutbacks, he added.
