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Politics : The Exxon Free Environmental Thread

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To: Wharf Rat who wrote (4994)	3/22/2010 6:44:36 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) of 49004

Cyprus ‘to run out of drinking water’ March 22, 2010 By Alex Bell Alex Bell is the author of Peak Water: Civilisation and the world’s water crisis,which is available on Amazon. Cyprus is predicted to become the first part of the European Union to run out of water. A spokesman at the EU Commission said the Mediterranean island was Europe’s ‘front line’ in the war against diminishing water resources. Divided by war in 1974, the former British colony has been consumed by the rivalry between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. The generation-old conflict has obscured the environmental disaster that has empty reservoirs, led to water rationing and is killing the island’s ecosystem. Rainfall in Cyprus has dropped by 15% since the 1970’s. Since then the country has been parched by long droughts broken briefly by occasional downpours. Engineers say water reserves can only reach half of what they were in the 1960’s, and that is during wet periods. Things are likely to get significantly worse. Walter Gammeltoft, known in the EU Commission as ‘Mr Water’ and the head of the Commission’s research into water and climate change, says all predictions show Cyprus getting up to 20% less water by 2050. “Water is how we will feel the impact of climate change. Either too much or too little of it. Cyprus is in the front line of water shortages for the EU,” says Gammeltoft. The Greek Cypriot government in Nicosia has decided to make a dash for desalination and is building three new plants. But converting the salty sea into drinking water cannot replace the loss in natural supply. The Environment Commissioner of Cyprus predicts that while the taps will run for the urban population, the land will wither and die from drought. Cyprus has chosen desalination plants powered by oil-fired electricity stations, thus contributing to the fossil fuel emissions that are thought to be accelerating climate change. The EU has demanded an Environmental impact assessment report on the island’s water policy. Sources suggest this may result in the whole water management regime being called into question. The boom in tourism and holiday home construction and the modernization of the economy has resulted in higher water use per capita. Any challenge to Nicosia’s water policy would raise questions about its economic future. The end of the property bubble coupled to declining tourist numbers and the high value of the Euro have already put unemployment up and GDP down. The crisis has given new credibility to a scheme to build a pipeline from Turkey to Cyprus supplying fresh water. A private plan to lay a plastic tube on the seabed the 75km from coast to coast has won the interest of the European Investment Bank and a consortium of banks and oil companies. However, as the plan would mean handing control of water to the Greek Cypriots sworn enemies in Ankara, the scheme is unlikely to proceed until the water shortage becomes desperate. Alex Bell is the author of Peak Water: Civilisation and the world’s water crisis, which is available on Amazon. world.caledonianmercury.com

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