The hot summer months are closing in fast and experts point out Cyprus is literally praying for good weather to avoid serious damage from forest fires that will inevitably break out.
Last year, forest fires devastated large areas in Soleas and Argaka. At the time the government had pledged to invest on prevention.
Interior and Agriculture ministers had reassured everybody that this year there will be enough man power and fire-fighting equipment to deal with any incident that may occur.
Unfortunately, very little or even anything at all has been done to honour that pledge. Officials from the forestry department told MPs this week that the government has failed to hire fire fighters.
Also they haven’t replaced old vehicles and other machinery, whereas coordination of fire fighting efforts doesn’t fall under one governmental roof, but the relevant competences are divided between different departments.
Bureaucracy and inner government antagonism have resulted in Civil Aviation refusing to check the airplanes the Forestry Department is using to put out fires.
The planes haven’t been checked since 2015.
And there are not enough pilots to take shifts and fly the planes in case a major fire breaks out.
Experts have pointed out that forestry department personnel are not enough to man the firetrucks.
They also revealed that 130 out of 250 firetrucks and personnel carriers are so old that they shouldn’t be in service.
A representative of Forestry Department employees told MPs that there has been no real improvement since last year.
Despite announcements to the contrary, no preventative measures have been taken, the purchase of equipment will start in stages from next year, whereas farmers affected by Soleas and Argaka fires have received no compensation.