Water in reservoirs at low level

Water reserves in reservoirs currently stand at 14.6 per cent of capacity, evenlower than last year when they stood at 20 per cent.

After the House agriculture committee discussed the issue on Tuesday, its chairman Akel MP Andreas Kakalias said the island’s water management system faces many problems and a holistic approach is needed to deal with the issue, which is a major problem in Cyprus.

The committee raised the issue of implementing a single pricing policy in relation to water charges and that there should also be special tariffs for livestock and farming needs, which so far do not exist, with the result that livestock areas are billed like households, up to €5 per tonne. “Farmers cannot cope with such charges,” he said.

He added that the committee had asked the relevant ministries to look at the issue and study the introduction of a farm tariff.

The issue of the debts of the Limassol water board was also addressed.

“It’s an old story we all know, tens of millions have been written off. Today we have been informed that there are some accumulated debts at the water board, it is an issue that will concern us in the next few days,” Kakalias concluded.

At the moment there are different charges in the various regions around the island which are decided by the local water boards.

In past years the government has on numerous occasions written off debts by farmers after large regions were classified as drought stricken areas.

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