PEOPLE living in villages in the Limassol area are suffering from severe water shortages, which are making their lives a misery.
Roger Peats, a resident of Pareklishia, said, “by 3.30 pm, the water pressure starts to drop off, which then becomes a dribble soon afterwards. By 6pm, there is no water at all. It’s been happening for the past month and the problem is steadily getting worse.”
The 58-year-old Briton said he had “to time when to have a shower and when to use the washing machine and dish water. This must be done either before early afternoon or in the middle of the night.”
He added that, “the cistern slowly starts to fill up when people start going to bed at night and the water pressure then returns back to normal between two and three in the morning.”
The mukhtar of the village, Socrates Pavlou, said 600 tonnes of water were pumped out of Moutayiakka village every day and this supplies between four and five villages in the surrounding areas.
He said that the problem of water shortages has arisen due to two main factors. “First, there are more and more people living in the villages every year, with around 100 new houses built in each village annually. Secondly, people waste a lot of water every day on things such as gardening and swimming pools. I estimate that each person is using three times as much water on a daily basis than is necessary.”
He went on to say that he was meeting with the Limassol district office today to discuss the problem, with one possible solution being to install another turbine which would be able to pump out an extra 30 tonnes of water an hour.
“At the moment, 100 tonnes are shared between all the villages every hour.”
Pavlou added that £300,000 has been spent on a project which will see water transferred from forest regions to the villages. Half of the money has been provided by the government, with the other half coming from Pareklishia’s coffers.
“I’m really sorry that people have to suffer like this but they shouldn’t worry as the problem will be fixed in two months when the water supply from the forest becomes available.”
He urged all the people affected to economise their water use.
