UCY library roof leaks when it rains, director says

The acting director of the University of Cyprus’s library Elena Diomides Parpouna on Sunday rubbished allegations that the building flooded, after videos circulating the media showed rainwater leaking from the roof.

Although the library’s acting director denied the flooding reports, she confirmed that water was leaking inside the building from two specific points of the roof, which is constructed in the form of cells.

No damage was caused to the bookcases, books or the library premises due to the rains on Saturday, she noted.

As soon as she was informed of the incident, Diomides visited the library and identified the specific spots that were not stuck well together to inform the technicians.

“They will look at it next week,” she said.

According to the acting director, whenever it rains, it drips inside the five-year-old library, but then it stops. On Saturday, water was leaking on the tables students are sitting to work on according to video material circulating social media.

“The students who were there were understandably concerned. Now it’s also exam season, which is very busy. The seats are all taken,” she noted, adding that thankfully, there was no damage detected.

As for the roof, she said “it was indeed and very difficult to glue one piece to the other.”

Saying that this does not mean the leakage was justified, she reiterated that it was a human factor error that the glue did not get in one millimetre.

“We dealt with it and we just got in, in the first rains. A new building always needs improvements, but there needs to be even more emphasis. And the fact that it doesn’t rain that often in Cyprus, we deal with it once in a while, we thought it was solved.

“Yesterday’s incident will make us even more alarmed to look into it more,” she said.

The library’s cost amounted to €33 million and was inaugurated in December, 2018.