EU auditors to examine desertification risk in Cyprus

[Paphos Life]

More than half of Cyprus' territory is at risk of desertification, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) said on Wednesday....

Read the article and chat about it below...

[exodus]

I would have thought nearly half is already desert. This process started in about 1974 (coincidental with the Turkish Invasion) after which rainfall has been getting progressively less and less. Prior to that the Island was very green and fertile.
Water is wasted a lot here, hence at the moment the dams are very low.
The only solution is more desalination plants; to fuel these we should use the offshore gas reserves, rather than exporting them.
One desalination plant was supplied from Israel, but it was never put into service near Paphos. Why?
Amos.

[Devil]

This process started in about 1974 (coincidental with the Turkish Invasion) after which rainfall has been getting progressively less and less. Prior to that the Island was very green and fertile.

That is completely untrue. The process has been going on for over a century. See http://bnellis.eu/climate/ccdesert.html. I remember that, when I was here in the 1950s, farmers were complaining about hotter, drier weather, especially cotton and tobacco growers, who have all but disappeared.

What is more, I take extreme objection to your reference to the Turkish invasion, which has not changed the weather or the climate one jot and I assume you added as a provocation.

[WHL]

I would have thought nearly half is already desert. This process started in about 1974 (coincidental with the Turkish Invasion) after which rainfall has been getting progressively less and less. Prior to that the Island was very green and fertile.
Water is wasted a lot here, hence at the moment the dams are very low.
The only solution is more desalination plants; to fuel these we should use the offshore gas reserves, rather than exporting them.
One desalination plant was supplied from Israel, but it was never put into service near Paphos. Why?
Amos.

Utter tosh..what has the Turkish Invasion got to do with the weather, I think your trolling to get a reaction,....Ive been coming to Cyprus since the early 60s and it was a lot dryer then, never greener

[exodus]

I said it was just coincidence (with the Invasion), nothing to do with it apart from the date.
There WAS much more green around then, but as has been suggested maybe this process has been going on much longer.
Amos.

[Devil]

I said it was just coincidence (with the Invasion), nothing to do with it apart from the date.
There WAS much more green around then, but as has been suggested maybe this process has been going on much longer.
Amos.

May I respectfully suggest you get your facts right? Cyprus summers have been desert-like as far back as I can remember (1952 my first time here). Have a look at the photos I took then, esp. the coastal plains that look like desert at about 5:10 and also after 9;00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nap-Dx8P8wk In 1956, I was talking with an ex-cotton grower near Astromeritis and he was planting orange trees (which grow well there!); he said he gave up cotton which was top-grade Egyptian quality through lack of water in the growing season. When was your first visit?

[Varky]

I said it was just coincidence (with the Invasion), nothing to do with it apart from the date.
There WAS much more green around then, but as has been suggested maybe this process has been going on much longer.
Amos.

The inference was clear. If there were other coincidences with the same date elsewhere, why did you not mention them? Pure provocation!

[exodus]

I said it was just coincidence (with the Invasion), nothing to do with it apart from the date.
There WAS much more green around then, but as has been suggested maybe this process has been going on much longer.
Amos.

The inference was clear. If there were other coincidences with the same date elsewhere, why did you not mention them? Pure provocation!

I can assure you no such provocation was intended whatsoever.
We came here for a holiday in 1973 and everywhere was much greener than now. We came again in 1975 and there had been little rain for 2 years.
Living in Israel we were of course highly aware of events on the Island in 1974, that year therefore sticks in my mind.
Getting back to the main thread and as per my initial post about the water situation, why was the desalination plant near Paphos (made in Israel) not brought into service? Does anyone know. Clearly such plants are more and more necessary every year that passes.
Amos.

[clive of payia]

I was in Cyprus in 1961 and it was most certainly more green and fertile. With the vast increase in housebuilding, they have neglected to replant more olive trees which used to be in such abundance. In the west we do have at least the Akamas Forest but they are after that as well now.

[Devil]

Certainly not Global Warming which has been known since the mid 1800s and Arrhenius published a paper in 1896 which quantified it with an equation, still used today. Perhaps you mean Climate Change, which is largely a result of human activities. http://bnellis.eu/climate/ccbasics.html