The British bases declared Lady’s Mile beach safe for swimming on Thursday evening, a day after issuing a warning advising the public to stay out of the water due to contamination concerns.
“Our most recent test results show significantly improved water quality across Lady’s Mile beach,” the bases said in a statement.
As a result, sea bathing in the area is now considered safe. However, the source of the earlier contamination has yet to be identified.
The bases said they would continue investigating the cause in cooperation with the Republic of Cyprus. “We plan to conduct further tests jointly with the Republic of Cyprus to monitor water quality over the next few weeks,” they added.
The initial advisory was issued over the weekend after high levels of enterococci bacteria were reportedly detected in the seawater.
Thursday’s announcement came after a brief disagreement between the bases and Cypriot authorities over the assessment of water safety.
While the bases urged the public to avoid swimming, the environment department and the mayors of Limassol and Kourion maintained that the water was safe.
Environment department director Theodoulos Mesimeris said on Wednesday that recent state-run tests rated the water quality as “excellent” and questioned the differing results reported by the bases – a position he reiterated to the Cyprus Mail on Thursday morning.
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