Drinking water for Cyprus

Summer temperatures on the holiday island of Cyprus can be extremely high. Because of these high temperatures last year, the island was plagued by drought and fires for the second year running. An acute shortage of clean, reliable drinking water was the result. So the Greek government decided to supply eight million cubic metres of water by water tanker within six months. However a 1400 metre long undersea pipe, which connects the moored tankers to the island’s water mains, turned out to be just too short. The biggest problem, however, was pumping the water across, as the pressure needed could not be achieved.

The Greek aid programme demands an investment of more than €40 million. ‘We encountered a frustrating situation,’ explains consultant Hein van Egmond of Royal Haskoning. ‘Up to the end of this year the population of the Greek part of Cyprus needs at least eight million cubic metres of extra water, but the water supplied by water tanker initially didn’t achieve this. The situation called for a fast solution. As it happens a ship carrying 50,000 cubic metres of water was lying off the coast of the seaside resort of Limassol, but could not transfer its cargo because of a technical problem with the buoy. And because even water can go off, the Cypriot ship-owner called in the help of Royal Haskoning to repair the infrastructure.’

Floating booster
‘We immediately freed up two experts, a hydraulic engineer and a pump expert, in our office in Albania to make calculations. As luck would have it, these ‘short-termers’ were working on a contract in Albania at the time. They put together a hydraulic model. The solution for the problem was a ‘floating booster’, in other words a pontoon with pumps that has to be placed at a certain point in the pipe between the tankers and the mainland. This increases the force of the pump so that the contractual obligations of 2,500m3 water per hour could be fulfilled.’

Desalination plant
If the drought goes on any longer the solution for the water shortage will have to be looked for in another area. A floating desalination plant, perhaps, or an additional desalination plant on the mainland,’ says Hein van Egmond. Obviously the same water shortages occur in the Turkish part of Cyprus, but for political reasons the two parts of the island are not working together to solve their drinking water problems. The Turkish government is planning an undersea pipeline between the Turkish part of Cyprus and the Turkish mainland to prevent chronic water shortages in the future. Haskoning has been approached by market players involved in this. There is a great deal of international interest in this solution.

At the end of October the EU announced that it is giving Cyprus support of €7.6 million. The money will be coming from the EU Solidarity Fund as compensation for the damage caused by the drought.

Contact: Hein van Egmond
+31 (0)50 5214 115
h.vanegmond@royalhaskoning.com

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