SOME OF the worst flood damage caused over the last two days was due to a lack of proper town planning, with building permits given for houses to be built on dried-up river courses, it emerged yesterday.
In the Nicosia district, the worst damage occurred in Yeri, where many residents took the day off work in order to clean up mud deposits and sift through waterlogged belongings before lodging compensation claims with the district authorities.
Several residents in Yeri phoned the local council to complain that shoddy road-planning and blocked-up river courses had worsened the impact of the torrential rain from the very start. Some told reporters of cases where permits were approved for building next to river-basins, with consequences which should have been easy to avoid with proper foresight.
Panayiotis Pirazis said that “these days, people usually put down hard-core, build a retaining wall, then go ahead with their build, and that’s it. They think the river-course has just gone away, but a river that has flowed along the same path for a thousand years needs room to move.”
Christodoulos Filippou, also from Yeri, said: “Just look at the slip-shod methods they’ve been using. They push a road through and divide ground up into building lots, without planning for water-drainage. Where is the water supposed to go? It just flows back into the road, turning it into a river.”
Even the council offices did not escape. A badly laid-out road outside council buildings led to basements being flooded, destroying paper archives and office equipment.
The heavy flooding in many areas of Limassol town – including Zakaki, Kato Polemidia, Ayios Ioannis and Omonia – two days ago were followed by more torrential downpours yesterday, adding to residents’ misery, some of whom were trapped in their homes by flood-water more than one metre deep.
Limassol resident Panayiotis Christoforou told reporters: “We need to become more aware, like proper Europeans, and not just carry on dumping stuff in river-courses”, adding there was no point in cleaning the Town Hall for 15 days, “only to find ourselves in the same mess 15 days later”.
Themis Kontidis from Limassol said that the small bridge that had been built near his home was “more of a dam than a bridge”, preventing any water from flowing freely along the old river-course. This meant that the flood-water found a different course – through the neighbouring houses.
He told reporters yesterday lunchtime that the only option was “either the bridge is demolished, or we move away from here”. After further heavy rain started around 2.30 pm yesterday, the authorities moved in to demolish the bridge, allowing a raging torrent to follow the original river-course.
Similar scenes were to be found in Frenaros and Avgorou in Famagusta district. Avgorou resident Marcos Georgiou told reporters that one busy road lined with houses was actually built along an old river-course. “You can see the result”, he said.
In Alambra (Nicosia), Dina Agridioti is convinced that the newly-built church next to her property is to blame for her home being submerged by flood-water, forcing her family to move into a hotel. “Both the builders and the supervising architects told me that one drop of water would not get into my home. They were right – a whole river came in from one side and went out the other.” She told reporters that both she and her husband had been threatened by the church’s builder following her complaints: “He told me that if I didn’t keep my mouth shut and stop accusing his construction company, he would destroy me.”
Tassoulla Hadjiyianni from Ayia Varvara (Nicosia) is accusing her neighbours of filling in the nearby river-course with tons of earth in order to a create plot for building. The result was that when the first storm hit, her house was flooded as the water found a new course. “They’ve made me a refugee”, she said.
Yesterday’s heavy rain caused further flooding on the Nicosia-Limassol highway around Zygi and Moni, at roundabouts in the Polemidia, Yermasogia and Agia Fila areas of Limassol.
The weather prospects for next week provide cold comfort for the beleaguered emergency services. Meteorological Service official Philipos Tymvios said yesterday that a new front of low pressure will reach Cyprus next week, bringing with it a drop in temperature, strong winds, rain and widespread storms.
SIDEBAR
Minister: “Water-cuts will continue to end-2009”
Agriculture Minister Michalis Polynikis said yesterday that despite the recent torrential rain, the current programme of 15 per cent water-cuts will continue until the end of the year. The water-levels in the dams providing the main water-supply will then be reviewed, and a further decision on the cuts will be made early next year.
Polynikis said that although water was flowing into the dams, the quantities were “limited”. Water levels in the dams island-wide are still only at 25.4 per cent capacity, but “compared to last year we are in a much better situation”.
The Minister also said that the government is sticking to its commitment to have enough desalination plants operating within two years to avoid the problem of lack of rain altogether.
Despite the torrential rain across the island over the last few days, the total rainfall up to 29 October is still only 83 per cent of the average rainfall for the whole month.
