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- Ελληνικά
The President of the Republic Mr Nicos Christodoulides toured the communities affected by the recent devastating fires in the Paphos district today, where he spoke to the community authorities and residents of the areas about the problems that arose after the disaster they suffered.
President Christodoulides, who was accompanied by the Minister of Interior Mr. Constantinos Ioannou, the Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment Ms. Maria Panayiotou, the Minister of Justice and Public Order Mr. Mr. Marios Hartsiotis and the Government Spokesman Mr. Konstantinos Letibiotis, had meetings with the community leaders and residents of the communities of Choulou, Polemi, Agios Dimitrianos and Psathi, during which they discussed the problems that arise and ways to address them.
In his statements to journalists on the sidelines of his tour of the affected areas, and in response to a journalist's remark that for some issues the President provided immediate solutions, the President said: "I decided to visit the affected areas with the relevant ministers to hear from the Presidents of the communities and from the residents themselves about the causes that led to these fires, and what are the immediate needs to which we as a state must respond.
Firstly, I want to say that I am pleased with what I have heard from the Presidents of the Communities about the response that has emerged through the relevant Services of the Republic to deal with the fires.
The second is about the needs, the problems that have arisen. Particularly on some issues we have to respond immediately as a state, so I have given instructions and tomorrow they (the Services) will be here tomorrow in Polemi at 5pm for the communities in the area and at 6pm. in the community of Hulu for the other areas, to do and complete the inventory so that we can take a decision at the Cabinet meeting next Wednesday to immediately pay compensation for all those who need to replace (some things), for example, for water supply purposes, for perishable issues and so on, for immediate replacement so that they can continue to farm the land.
Beyond that, we're in June, this is not the first fire. All of us should do everything possible to ensure that we do not have this kind of occurrence.
The instructions given to Ministers and by myself when the fire happened and for any other incident, our priority is human lives. That is our priority and that is where our focus is. Of course, we've looked at all the other issues that come up, and together with the community presidents and with residents we've been rolling out specific solutions. On Wednesday, at the Council of Ministers, the relevant Minister will bring a proposal to the Cabinet to start the compensation from the State's side."
Asked if from all that he has heard he thinks there was negligence or if the relevant agencies overreached themselves, the President said: "From day one I have spoken to the Presidents of all the communities affected. And they did not report to me about negligence. On the contrary, even now after the conclusion of the meeting, and earlier where I was (Hulu), they referred to the immediate response, the superhuman efforts of all the competent Services, the volunteers, the residents of the areas. This is something that pleases me. There is always room for improvement. Let me tell you that on this particular day when the fire broke out, there were 11 aircraft here, attempting to deal with the fire. The weather conditions, the winds, as the community presidents have told me, were unprecedented. What I keep at the end of the day, which is the most important thing, is the protection of human life, that's where we focus in any response to these kinds of events."
(PM/NZ/EP)
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