CYPRUS is running the risk of becoming a desert by the end of the century as it faces the onslaught of climate change and drought warned Professor Manfred Lange – director of the Cyprus Institute’s Energy, Environment and Water Research Centre.

In a discussion held yesterday, Professor Lange said that studies project a rise in summer temperatures on the island of between two and four degrees this century compared to the 1960 to 1990 reference periods. “I think that there is a very definite potential for dramatically increasing desertification,” he said.

According to the Professor, Cyprus can expect an extra two months of days with temperatures exceeding 35 degrees centigrade on top of the present summer months of June, July and August by the end of the century.

There is also likely to be less rainfall and increased evaporation because of higher temperatures.

“Cyprus will in fact become more like Abu Dhabi or other states that we know because there is just not enough water,” he said.

Cyprus now uses energy-intensive desalination to meet some of its water requirements, while its population of around one million lives with rationing and a permanent hosepipe ban. Lange said enforcement must be stringent.

“People want water but if you want to prevent desertification, we need to let nature have its share,” he said, adding that while climate change could be slowed, it could not be reversed.

The Cyprus Institute is examining the use of concentrated solar power to co-generate electricity and water suitable for drinking through desalination; technology that Lange said could be used elsewhere. “Cyprus could become somewhat of a showcase for this kind of technology and could develop an industry that would indeed then offer to market these devices to neighbouring countries“.

Speaking after the discussion on the issue of desertification Yiannos Lamaris, the Chairman of the House Environment Committee,  said that desertification was now “visible to the naked eye,” adding that the main reason behind it was human intervention.

He said that Cyprus lacked the necessary planning to deal with excessive grazing of the land and pointed to the Akamas peninsula alone, where there are currently 12,000 animals grazing uncontrollably.

“With mathematical accuracy, Akamas will turn into a desert in just a few years, due to uncontrollable grazing,” said Lamaris.

A similar problem is being faced in the Pissouri-Avdimou area, he added.

“While Cyprus signed the UN treaty to combat desertification back in 1999, we have reached 2008 and have been told that the report for the strategic plan for combating desertification will be ready in about a month, ” Lamaris explained.

The House Environment  Committee decided to re-convene on the issue in a month’s time to examine the strategic plan and take it from there.

FOLLOWING yesterday’s news that a desalination plant was under construction in the Kouklia area of Paphos, it has just been announced that the Cyprus Ministry of Agriculture plans to build a floating desalination plant off the Germasogia coast at Limassol.

Throughout the past summer Limassol, which is on the south coast of Cyprus, was totally dependent for its drinking water on supplies brought in by tankers from Greece.

The plan for the desalination plant will be presented to Parliament today and, according to the Cyprus Mail, it will be constructed using the infrastructure put in place to receive the water from Greece.

If everything goes according to plan, the plant will come on-line in June and will produce between 20,000m³ and 50,000m³ of water a day for the following five years. After that, the permanent desalination planned for Episkopi will take over.

But desalination plants are not without their critics. According to environmental engineer Michalis Loizides, although desalination plants may seem the ideal solution, future generations may be forced to pay for the mishaps of an irresponsible policy which successive governments have promoted.

He said “Desalination is so energy consuming, that for each ton of water purified, three litres of petrol are used. We have committed to limiting our CO₂ emissions to the EU. With the planned creation of the two desalination plants in Limassol and Paphos, as well as the desalination facilities for future golf courses, we will be hit with a fine of around €100 million” adding that this was an example of appalling planning by the government.

He went on to say that with the taxpayer footing the bill for any fines imposed by the EU, “people with no vested interests could actually end up subsidising the building of golf courses“.

PLANS for a further three desalination plants in Cyprus have got underway. Earlier this week the Athens Mesogios company started construction work on one of the plants in the Kouklia area of Paphos, which is a few miles to the south of the popular tourist destination.

The company has been given seven months to complete the work and the plant should deliver some 20,000 cubic metres of water a day to the local area.

The construction will cost €8.5 million and the Paphos Water Development Department expects to pay Mesogios €20 million for water over three years; customers will pay around €1.65/cu.m.

SEVERAL property buyers have contacted me about the future of MacAnthony Realty International  (MRI) in Cyprus. Many have seen the signage on their offices changed and were concerned that MRI may have run into financial difficulties.

The following press release by MRI’s Dominic Pickering was recently published in the Overseas Property Professional magazine and should help put an end to the questions and gossip:

NEW CEO AND DIRECTION FOR MRI OP

MRI Overseas Property, DCC International Property

ENDING speculation on various trade and investor blogs, the new CEO of MRI Overseas Property, Dominic Pickering, has outlined the company’s plans to focus on construction in 2009.

“We launched 7 or 8 years ago and started constructing at the midway point,” said Pickering. “Most of our profit now comes from construction and the day to day demands, and costs, of marketing are no longer our main focus.“

Pickering told OPP that MRI had gone through a major restructure in the last 3-6 months, closing some of its offices and laying off some staff as the company downsized to adapt to current market conditions. While the board is largely unchanged – Darragh Macanthony is chairman, Paul O’Mahoney is director of construction, and James Forester is marketing director – a significant change is the absence of former CEO Michael Liggan.

“Marketing was always Michael’s forte, so he has set up his own venture,” said Pickering. “This is not an acrimonious departure, and we hope he will send some buyers our way“. This new venture, called DCC International Property, was recently set up by Michael Liggan and is currently promoting projects in Cyprus, Bulgaria, Portugal, Romania, Spain and USA.

Independent venture

Confirming that DCC was “completely independent” of MRI Overseas Property, Liggan told OPP that: “DCC doesn’t have an exclusive agreement to market or sell MRI developments and currently doesn’t have any other exclusive agreements for the many other developments it will be marketing”.

Clarifying the relationship with MRI and its board, Liggan added: “I have a very close relationship to Darragh MacAnthony; not only was I the CEO for his group of companies for many years but I am also his best friend. Because of this a lot of industry people have assumed that DCC is really MRI in disguise when that simply isn’t the case. The truth of the situation is that Darragh wants to focus more of his time on developing and constructing projects around the world and also developing his football club Peterborough United and trying to get them promoted this season and in the next season until they’re in the Premiership.

“With Darragh not wanting to focus on taking over yet more of his ‘territories’ for his real estate company there is an opportunity for someone like me to want to do this and I believe the industry needs it. With Darragh planning on downsizing MRI Overseas Property I felt that now is the obvious time to go for it. Yes, we’re going through a worldwide credit crunch but times like this are often considered the best time to start a new company and for me that means I have direct access to taking on some of the best staff in the industry and also some of the best offices out there“.

Since DCC is currently promoting MRI projects, and occupying some of the MRI offices that had been closed down, there have been rumours of a rebrand. “It’s not a rebrand,” added Pickering. “We’ve spent 8 years building the MRI brand. We offered DCC the option of taking on the leases of some of our office space in Cyprus and Spain. They took up the offer and have even recruited some of the people we had to let go.“

Outlining plans going forward, Pickering said that it would not be relying on the same traditional marketing methods to sell homes. “As constructors, we still know how to sell,” he said. “But rather than spending thousands on stands at property exhibitions, we will be building a network of agents to partner with. We still have thousands upon thousands of clients on our database who have either purchased or shown interest, so we have various options open to us, but our aim is to build sales networks in the UK, Europe and the US.“

While MRI’s headquarters will remain in Spain, Pickering is based in Orlando in the US and is currently in negotiation with local partners to build this network. He also told OPP that MRI had been actively banking land in Europe and the US over the last year to support its focus on construction.

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