By Martin Hellicar
AGRICULTURE Minister Costas Themistocleous yesterday unveiled statistics showing declining rainfall in a bid to press home his campaign for more desalination.
He said that the Meteorological Service figures proved more oil-powered desalination plants were needed, urgently.
In response, Greenpeace argued that the same rainfall statistics showed why such desalination would be a mistake.
Greenpeace’s Cyprus spokeswoman, Irini Constantinou, said the declining rainfall was the result of global warming.
More oil-powered desalination plants would mean more emissions of heat- trapping carbon dioxide, more global warming and worsening droughts, Constantinou argued.
Themistocleous set out his stall during a morning press conference in Nicosia.
He produced extensive Meteorological service data to show that the island’s climate was getting hotter and drier. But he made no mention of the greenhouse effect.
The ministry attributes the pattern to “climatic variations.”
Precipitation in Cyprus is now 17 per cent lower than it was at the beginning of the 20th century, the government figures show. Annual precipitation in the first three decades of the century was 559 mm, while in the last three decades it has averaged 464 mm.
Average temperatures on the island have risen by about 0.8 degrees Celsius over the past 100 years. The average temperature in Nicosia in the first three decades of the century was 18,9 degrees, while in the last thirty years it has been 19.7 degrees.
A similar pattern has been recorded throughout the region.
Themistocleous noted that the decline in rainfall and increase in temperatures had been greater in the second half of the century. Most of the hottest years of the century have been recorded in the past 20 years. Rainfall over the past 10 years has been the lowest of any decade this century.
The Minister also noted that this winter was, so far, the driest of this dry decade. Rainfall, since October, has been only 35 per cent of average.
This drought, Themistocleous said, meant dams were increasingly empty and the government had to look elsewhere to meet water needs. Flow into dams has dropped by 42 per cent over the past 12 years.
Themistocleous said the trend was likely to continue and the only way out was to build more desalination plants.
Local residents and greens have been kicking up a fuss about state plans to build a desalination plant at Zakaki in Limassol.
The Minister presented a government impact study giving the proposed plant a clean bill of environmental health. He suggested Limassol would run out of water if the plant was not built.
He also warned that the government might have to review water pricing if the drought continued.
But Greenpeace told the Cyprus Mail that the desalination solution did not hold water.
“With this choice we will certainly get water, but we will also exacerbate climate change,” Constantinou said.
No serious scientist now doubts that global warming is a reality.
“Ten years ago there might have been scientists who disputed that global warming was happening, but not any more, the evidence, especially in our region, is plain to see,” the Greenpeace woman said.
Greenpeace recently launched a campaign to get governments to invest in non- polluting, renewable, sources of energy.
Constantinou said solar desalination plants were a viable alternative to oil-powered desalination that would help curb global warming.
The government impact study for the Zakaki plant makes only passing mention of the energy issue.
“It is a fact that a desalination plant involves energy use, a factor which was taken into account along with the other factors that had to be considered,” the agriculture ministry report states. “In any case, every new unit of offices or hotels increases the use of energy,” the report concludes.
