FIFTY thousand illegal boreholes are putting a huge burden on the island’s water supply, experts said yesterday.

The Nicosia Water Board (NWB) said it had been receiving continuous reports of illegal pumping from boreholes since March.

Head of the NWB Nikos Zambakides said that if one cubic metre alone was being pumped from each illegal borehole that was enough to cover the entire water needs of Nicosia.

“Imagine the destruction and problems this causes to the water supply,” he said.

Zambakides said it was imperative to set up a water authority that controlled the island’s water, both clean and unclean.

“There are 50,000 illegal boreholes that we have counted but how many are there that we don’t know about,” he added.

Apliki community leader Andreas Kopetritis blamed 300 illegal boreholes in the Farmakas area for running its natural spring water dry.

He said people pumped water to such excess that there was no water left, only slush. He said the activity was out of control and pleaded with authorities to do something about it before the situation worsened.