Cyprus’s sixth desalination plant plant, was inaugurated last week with a pledge from president Nicos Anastasiades that along with existing plants it would “guarantee that Cyprus will not face the problem of drought again.”
The €46 million plant, located at Vassilikos supplies 60,000 m3 of drinking water a day to the to the island’s Water Development Department’s network. It is a venture between the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) and Israeli company, IDE Technologies whereby the EAC received a turnkey plant.
The initial deal was signed in 2009 and the plant should have been operational by February 2012 but the explosion at Mari naval base, adjacent to Vassilikos destroyed most of the work done until that point..
Anastasiades said the government’s water policies did not end with creating desalination units. He said it was promoting the use of other non-conventional methods such as the treatment of wastewater for irrigation of agricultural crops. The government was also promoting the planting of crops that consumed less water, and working on raising awareness of water conservation.
“Cyprus could learn a lot from Israel on the importance of technology,” Anastasiades said.
“We hope that soon we will have the opportunity to launch several other projects that will be undertaken jointly by various agencies, both public and private sector in Israel and Cyprus,” he added.