The Nicosia neighbourhoods of Engomi and Archangelos suffered the worst damage during severe weather at the weekend, Nicosia’s regional disaster management authority said on Monday, as officials called for major flood control projects and stronger coordination between services.

Authority president and Nicosia EOA chief Constantinos Yiorkadjis said studies are underway in areas where flooding stemmed from structural weaknesses or missing infrastructure.

In Engomi officials are examining why the district lacks a complete stormwater system, why the relatively modern 28th October street keeps flooding, and why two planned retention lakes were never built.

“The solutions, unfortunately, to such major problems will not be immediate, because we are talking about the creation of new, important and large infrastructure projects,” he conceded.

Yiorkadjis said the authority now runs a dedicated team that cleans and maintains stormwater drains daily, not only ahead of storms.

Some areas, he said, were cleaned for the first time last year after years of visible neglect.

When yellow weather warnings are issued, the authority consults Nicosia’s five municipalities and inspects known trouble spots, sending crews to clear drain grills as bad weather sets in.

He traced many of the network’s weaknesses to the district’s ten former municipalities, each of which ran its own disconnected stormwater system before local government reform.

“There were ten municipalities and ten unconnected networks of stormwater pipes,” he said, explaining that unifying the system would take time after decades without sufficient investment.

Work is underway on several fronts, as the Vasilopotamos enclosed pipeline near Digenis Akritas, worth over €2 million, is set to begin shortly, while a study is progressing for a new stormwater project between Lakatamia and Strovolos near the GSP stadium, with construction targeted for early next year.

A charge of 0.05 cents per thousand towards stormwater infrastructure now raises around €2 million a year, funding incremental repairs across the district.

Nicosia mayor Charalambos Prountzos said flooding could not be treated “with painkillers” and called for large state led projects, including retention lakes on rivers.

He reported five flooded properties, around 21 fallen trees and power cuts in at least six areas, some having lasted up to 36 hours.

He urged formal coordination protocols between the EOA, the water development department (WDD), the fire brigade and the electricity authority (EAC), rather than merely relying on “informal relationships between staff”.

Strovolos mayor Stavros Stavrinides said his municipality deployed 13 crews over the weekend to deal with fallen trees and dislodged solar panels.

He said the annual overflow of the Pedieos river near the Prodromos bridge would only be resolved once a proposed development project, still awaiting a viability study, moved forward.