This newspaper and many other columnists in other publications have repeatedly written about the lack of vision by the government – and this criticism is not solely directed at the ruling coalition administration, but also to the general government machine that should be advising the relevant ministers on policy decisions.
One such example is the water crisis and the fumbling way the present government has dealt with it. The opposition party and the minister holding the same office in the previous administration were right to criticize the government that nothing has been done to resolve the problem, one which only seems to resurface whenever we have low rainfall in the winter months.
Instead of admitting to shortfalls in the government and lack of support from the civil service, the present minister decided to brush off any criticism as being the spiteful words of those who are no longer in government. This approach is childish, to say the least.
Due to the arrogance of claiming popular support from coalition powers, no one in the past four years has shown political maturity to admit to mistakes, either of their own, or of their office. Surprisingly, even the lame excuses that everything that goes wrong in this place is the fault of the previous administration, have dwindled to quiet murmurings every now and then.
As the present Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources is not prepared to listen to the opposition voices, he should now sit down and devise a long-term plan that will take Cyprus beyond the next presidential elections in 13 months’ time.
During his days at the Cyprus Tourism Organisation he had realized the importance of encouraging resort developers to build golf courses, if we were to attract quality tourists to
On the other hand, he is right to say that any new golf courses should seek their own water resources, suggesting that developers turn to mini-desalination plants. But will this solve the annual problem? Hardly.
Had the water supplies sector been liberalized, then we would have had private companies mushrooming all over the place to satisfy the local needs of communities or businesses. With a free pricing system water would be cheaper in winter and more expensive in summer, with farmers opting to collect ‘water credits’ for tonnage not used if they saved on their consumption throughout the year. And if rainfall were to help, so much the better.
If anyone is really to take the blame, it is the civil servant who did not send out warning signals in time, and the others who did not see the problem coming, despite the problem appearing every year.
So, Mr. Minister. Let’s get a proper water management programme under way and in the meantime you look into who is really to blame for this mess. Somebody has to pay for it and it is not the consumer.
