Turkish ambassador to Nicosia, Halil Akca has said that barring any unforeseen events, water from Turkey will begin its flow into Nicosia on 20th July, Turkish Cypriot daily ‘Realist’ reports.
Akca noted that the water project was a strategic one and could influence negotiations on the Cyprus settlement.
“Its primary aim is to provide quality water to the Turkish Cypriot people and to secure that this is sold [at] reasonable prices”, he said, adding that the plan is that the water would be re-cycled for agricultural use. However, he noted that there were problems surrounding this issue. Addressing those gathered at a ceremony to open a fire station at Iskele, the ambassador said that the sewage network system was only half completed. He added that these issues needed to be resolved before the water comes to the island.
Akca noted that owing to the high cost of electricity in the TRNC, the water could not be used for agriculture and that the cost of agricultural water was double that of Turkey.
He said that one possible solution would be to bring electricity by cable from Turkey, but then characterised this option as “naïve”.
Concluding that Turkey would need to develop a more sophisticated solution to the problem in cooperation with the TRNC, civilian organisations and the private sector, otherwise the whole water scheme would lose some of its value.
