THE NICOSIA Water Board will not increase tariffs during 2010, Board president Argyris Papanastasiou announced yesterday.
A fourth straight increase was unnecessary, he said, because the 10 per cent increase in tariffs the Board implemented over the last three years resulted in a small surplus.
Papanastasiou also announced that the Cabinet had decided to delay settling the debts of the Water Boards of Nicosia, Limassol and Larnaca, which run to over €20 million in total.
The Cabinet had originally aimed to settle the debts through a Ministerial Committee by the end of 2008.
Despite the delay the government already erased €52 million of the debt owed by the Water Board of Limassol. “We expect to get the same treatment as the Water Board of Limassol,” Papanastasiou said. 
The Water Board also discussed the creation of a single Water Authority, and stressed that to work, such a body must adopt uniform government policy and work with other agencies to ensure the proper investigation and management of water resources, and that the government must not show special treatment to local authorities.
The Board went on to discuss the state of the country’s current freshwater levels, saying that the dams have collected 187 million cubic metres of water over the last two years, and 97.2 million cubic metres during the last hydrological year. But the Board stressed that the country is not out of the woods and would only achieve long-lasting relief when the desalination plants in Akrotiri come online next year.
The current desalination plants in Dhekelia and Larnaca require upgrades which are causing the government “serious problems,” said Papanastasiou. Another permanent plant may be built in Kouklia, along with two mobile plants near Limassol.
The Board will also pursue a plan to connect the Paphos, Asprokremmos and Arminou dams in order to divert water into the Kouris dam, said Papanastasiou. The extra 20,500 million KM in Kouris, which would otherwise end up in the ocean, will be used for the areas in the greatest need of water.  
After two years of appropriate rainfall, the Board made the decision to end two years of water restrictions last month. Implementing the restrictions, said Papanastasiou, cost the Board €2 million. However it did save 4.8 million cubic metres of water, 50 percent of the total amount saved in Cyprus as a whole, he said.
“While we welcome the lifting of restrictions on water supply and should concentrate on improving our network to better serve the consumer, we do however believe that we owe to our consumers, who were more troubled than anyone else, to express our deep disappointment, because the cuts were not uniform throughout Cyprus,” Papanastasiou said.
Papanastasiou also announced the Board plans to celebrate World Water Day on March 22, a day established by the United Nations to raise awareness of the implications of water scarcity.
“It is unthinkable now in 21st century that 1.2 billion people on Earth live without access to clean and safe water while 70 percent of the population has no access to an organised sewerage system, or that we allow thousands of children to die every day from diseases directly or indirectly related to the inappropriate use of water,” said Papanastasiou.
The Board plans to celebrate World Water Day by holding an event in Cypria Hall at the International State Fair in Nicosia. The event will include an award ceremony for students who participated in a drawing competition the Board held last December in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Culture.