Ninety-five per cent of families displaced by the wildfire which tore through the Limassol district in July have now received a lump sum payment from the government, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Wednesday.

Speaking ahead of the day’s cabinet meeting, he said that a total of ten such cases are “pending”, with the approval process having been completed, but the awaiting families expected to submit “necessary information” before receiving the money.

Additionally, he said, the process of providing rent subsidy to 115 applicants is underway, with the payment for 85 of those cases having been processed so far and the money expected to arrive in their bank accounts by Thursday.

He also said teams deployed by the scientific and technical chamber (Etek) have assessed 615 of the 718 buildings which were partially or completely damaged by the fire, with compensation payments for those buildings now being made at market value rate.

Meanwhile, he said, the agriculture ministry has paid a total of €3.2 million worth of compensation for farmers’ and livestock breeders’ lost earnings, with that money being split between 1,311 people.

He then spoke about the matter of compensation being paid to workers, with all employees of companies and self-employed people whose businesses were impacted by the fires and who cannot return to work as a result set to be paid the equivalent of their salaries for a maximum of three months.

Thus far, he said, 194 people have been paid their salaries up to the end of August.

Then, he turned his attention to other measures the government had brought in, pointing out that residents and businesses in fire-affected areas are now exempt from annual village council tax for the year, with the government set to pay the amount for them.

Concluding his remarks, he stressed that the financial interjections could only be made because of the strong state of Cyprus’ economy.

“We can respond to this extent precisely because of the economic situation, which allows us both the growth observed in our economy, which is among the highest rates in Europe, especially if we compare it to the strong economies of EU member states, especially in the midst of two wars, which allows us not only to respond immediately but to respond to address the affects of these fires in their entirety,” he said.

His comments come after Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou had last week said the government has approved €23.5 million worth of funding for the “rehabilitation” of fire-affected farmers, while efforts are also underway to begin replanting the trees which were burned during the fire.

“The environment department has carried out a map assessment of all the areas which were burned and will carry out an on-site study aiming at a comparative assessment of the before and after … This will be completed in September,” she said.

She had also pointed out that with the forestry college set to open its doors later this month, the government will soon begin to be able to fill the “very large” number of vacant positions within the forestry department and thus be able to better respond to future wildfires.