Cyprus News Agency: News in English, 08-03-24

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From: The Cyprus News Agency at <http://www.cyna.org.cy>

CONTENTS

[01] LEDRA STREET - UNFICYP

[02] IACOVOU - LEDRA STREET

[03] CYPRUS - WATER

[01] LEDRA STREET - UNFICYP

Mavrou and Bulutoglulari both noted that everything was in order for the opening and that they were waiting for the go ahead from the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).

Ambassador of Slovakia in Nicosia Anna Turenicova, who attended the lunch, said ``the leaders of the political parties of both sides are supporting the two mayors very strongly and I can confirm that this was a very constructive meeting and I am sure that it will contribute to a very distinguished opening of Ledra Street.``

In statements after the lunch, Mavrou said ``today our meeting had a very concrete reason and we are happy to be informed about the political decision to open Ledra Street.``

``We have worked hard until now to open Ledra Street, so today we just make sure that all the preparations are in order. At the moment we are waiting for the go ahead from UNFICYP,`` Mavrou said.

She added that ``UNFICYP still has not concluded their work concerning the safety of the area but as soon as we get the green light, our crews will be able to enter the area and start the support work at the beginning and the construction work later.``

``As we have said repeatedly, we think that five days will be enough for the works to be concluded, for the first phase, but of course we cannot be sure even about that, unless we enter the area,`` Mavrou noted.

Bulutoglulari said ``we have seen the difficulties, we have the projects of the area and we have difficulties there.``

``We are waiting for the UN to give us the go ahead and we will decide the same day. We need five days together to finish the area for the construction and the safety work and, hopefully, once we get the go ahead we will start together helping each other and we will finish it at the beginning of the month. But we do not know the date,`` he said.

[02] IACOVOU - LEDRA STREET

Asked after a meeting with Turkish Cypriot leaders aid Ozdil Nami why the UN demining team had not entered Ledra street to begin work, Iacovou said he had raised this issue during the meeting.

I have said in the past that certain issues sometimes come up and do not allow us to get results. Something like that has obviously happened. He (Nami) promised that this issue will be overcome, he added.

Asked if the Turkish side has reneged on the issue of the demarcation of the buffer zone, Iacovou said he could not comment on this.

[03] CYPRUS - WATER

Speaking after the meeting, attended by the Ministers of Agriculture, Finance and the Interior, as well as state officials, Government Spokesman Stephanos Stephanou said they also decided the immediate preparation of infrastructure in order to import water from Greece, which would take about five months.

In order to tackle the situation, the meeting also decided to extend the capacity of the temporary mobile unit in Pyrgos, Limassol, from 20,000 cubic metres to 40,000 cubic metres of water per day.

The meeting decided to immediate investigation of the possibility of using some container-type desalination plants to cover immediate needs, drilling new wells to support water supply, continue to provide motives for saving potable water and enhancing the awareness campaign on saving water. Furthermore, the three competent Ministries would continue monitoring the situation and would decide further measures, if necessary.

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