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The efforts made to ensure that the competent state services are ready to deal with fires, but also the issue of water supply to households was mentioned today by the Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment Dr Maria Panayiotou.
In the context of her presence at the Environmental Information and Education Centre of Athalassa, for the declaration of the opening ceremony of the Forest Protection Week 13 - 19 May, the Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment answered questions from journalists.
Asked about this, she said that since the first fire we had to deal with in April, we recognized that we have this problem of availability of flying equipment because of the newly established procedures we follow. "You realize that we cannot escape beyond the newly enacted procedures, which are ongoing," he added."
He informed that at the moment the bids for the means of flight are in the process of being evaluated. "We are so far within the timeframe that we had said," Dr Panagiotou noted.
At the same time, she said, "just to overcome this gap, which had been created, we started a contact together with other countries, neighbouring and non-neighbouring countries." As a result of these contacts, she explained, "the two Jordanian helicopters were transferred to the island together with their 18-member crew."
The Minister recalled that the Jordanian helicopters arrived in Cyprus on Easter Sunday and said that in exactly seven days, i.e. yesterday Sunday, they were put into operational readiness.
He reiterated that the Republic of Cyprus is in contact with neighbouring countries, as well as with others, in order to be called upon in case it is necessary.
"Precisely because we have recognised that there is this problem with the aircraft, I have gone ahead and asked my colleagues that one of the two aircraft that the National Guard, the Police and the British Bases have will be available if needed, in case of a fire in a response time of around 30 minutes," the Minister explained.
She stressed that "the response time of the Forestry Department's aircraft is around 12 minutes," noting that "it is one of the best times we have on average in the European Union."
Subsequently, the Agriculture Minister stressed that "aircraft are a part of firefighting."
"Precisely because we knew that there would be this whole problem with the newly established procedures we are following and the time we now have to go through, we proceeded to reinforce the ground forces of the Forestry Department," the Minister noted. "We have taken equipment around 5.5 million euros to extinguish the fires," he specifically stressed.
She also added that this year the staff has been put in full readiness a month earlier, from April and not from May, as it was in previous years, having in eight months instead of six and the forest firefighters along with the forestry officers, working together with the other relevant services, to face, as she said, the difficult summer ahead.
The Minister recommended as "all and sundry to be very careful. Whatever resources we have will never be enough if we do not do the obvious. Do whatever it takes to avoid causing the fire."
Asked to comment on the low inflow of water into the dams and the planning that is in place for the summer season, the Minister noted that the scenario and the evaluation of the quantities we have by the relevant committee has been started earlier.
She said that "we have informed our farmers well in advance that we will have to move to lower volumes on average, by about 33%, so that they know how to plan their production."
Regarding the water supply to households part, he stressed that it is a top priority for citizens to have potable water, "so by making full use of the desalination plants in this way, the Water Development Department believes that it will be able to provide water to the citizens without interruption."
"We have had a very, very difficult winter, the water in the dams is at low flows, below 50%," so he recommended "to be frugal and not wasteful."
Finally, in response to a reporter's question about the administrative investigation into any responsibility for the Akamas works, Dr Panagiotou said the investigation had reached her on Friday, as was the schedule, and was being studied by her.
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