Farmers set to protest over water shortage

Farmers are preparing to protest next Monday over the ongoing water shortage, demanding more be allocated to farmland.

There will be two simultaneous protests taking place, one in Paphos and one in Xylophagou.

Potato farmers’ representative Andreas Karios said told newspaper Phileleftheros on Tuesday that the protest “will be peaceful” but that if farmers’ demands for more water are not met, they will take “more drastic and dynamic measures” in the future.

He said the problem began in 2022 when the amount of water being pumped through the southern conveyor to the ‘red villages’ in the Famagusta district, and to farmland in Paphos from the Asprokremmos dam, began to be reduced.

“This year, as much as 60 per cent of our water is being reduced,” he said, saying that water is only pumped for four hours per week.

In response, farmers have asked for two million more cubic metres of water to be pumped through the southern conveyor and a million more cubic metres to be pumped from the Asprokremmos dam by the end of the year.

“In the red villages, they give us six million cubic metres of water, and two million were left for the second half of the year. Now there is water from boreholes, which is dangerous, because it is salty,” he said.

However, despite the danger posed by the salty water from the boreholes, Karios said there is “no other source” of water for them to use.

He added that if the situation continues as it currently is, “the production of many agricultural products will be reduced, which will increase prices for consumers.”

He said a meeting had been held with Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou and representatives of the water development department, and that “we have explained the serious problem” that will be caused by continued limitations on water supply.

“There will be consequences for farmers, for consumers, but also for the quantities which are exported,” he added.

“They have left us at God’s mercy. They don’t care at all about agriculture,” he said.

Measures have been in place since the start of the month aimed at alleviating an ongoing water shortage across the island, with Cyprus’ dams currently just 39 per cent full, compared to around 63 per cent this time last year.

Water development department engineer Yianna Economidou had told the Cyprus Mail in May that Cyprus “is facing the third lowest inflow of water in a decade this year,” while the World Resources Institute’s risk atlas put Cyprus’ level of severe water stress as “very high”.

With this in mind, the government implemented a hosepipe ban, with the act of hosing down pavements, roads, verandas, fences, or cars now punishable by a three-month prison sentence, a €513 fine, or both.