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As wonderful as the news of record rainfall might be, the problems created by the torrent of the last few weeks should have been foreseen and handled better, albeit less tragic than previous years.
The gush of water and the mud that it dragged with it created serious problems to the irrigation and supply network of Paphos, with the local pumping stations literally bogged down with dirt, prompting the local authorities to temporarily resort to water wells for drinking supply.
The prompt reaction of public officials seems to have resolved this problem, which may not have been foreseen to its full extent but should have been considered, nonetheless.
The public outcry from the floods that caused extensive damage in Larnaca’s Kamares area in recent years seems to have found some resonance and forced local authorities to take evasive action, in some cases pre-emptively, to avoid catastrophes of the scale we had seen.
In that case, the core of the problem had been illegal construction in the river bed, with locals naively thinking that no harm would come from the 1-2 months of winter conditions we have every year.
However, the tolerance of the authorities was also to blame, as municipalities had neither the manpower nor the budget to conduct extensive inspections, particularly of high-risk areas.
When all is considered, the post-event cost for clearing and fixing was higher than what it would have been for pro-active measures.
The same could not be said in the case of Nicosia, where the Mayor of Strovolos happily declared this week that building a new bridge near the town hall, a major junction that is flooded every time we have rain, has been included in the next development budget.
We’ve heard this year again, especially after a major spurt of water and the Pedieos river overflowing, ultimately flooding that specific crossing, while a nearby auxiliary bridge is dangerously nearing its stress levels, made worse by diverted traffic.
But what has been abundantly clear to any passerby, be it in winter or summer, is the dirt and the rubbish thrown into the riverbed.
Not much seems to have been cleared here, especially as this maintenance work should have been conducted from September to November.
To his credit, the mayor said that the problems were drastically less than in other years and even attributed some of the causes to rubbish (including large electrical appliances) being thrown into the riverbed further upstream, throwing the blame on Lakatamia municipality.
Surely, some coordination between municipalities could have taken place, not necessarily to police the riverbeds and fine fly tippers, but to clear the areas in joint efforts and identify high-risk points in the future.
In the same way, neighbourhoods need to have clearly designated areas for the collection of clearing and large garden items (tree branches, pruning’s, etc.) which the recycling crews refuse to collect.
The cleaner a neighbourhood is, the less of a chance someone will throw garbage in the riverbeds, with a lesser burden and cost on the municipalities.
Until then, some progress on the deliberately stalled Tseri Avenue project would be welcome, as it has become a major thoroughfare for Strovolos, and heavy rainfall causes as many problems on this road as overflowing rivers.
