Kyrenia mayor Murat Senkul issued a warning to people illegally taking water from the town’s supply on Friday.

Senkul said there is a difference of about 250 thousand tonnes between the amount of water bought and sold by his municipality, and said this discrepancy is costing the municipality about 4 million TL (€140,660).

“Taking water illegally from the municipality is a crime … I have said many times that I would not allow even my father’s son to do this, and I think our actions [as a municipality] prove that”, he said.

He added that monitors “detected a high degree of illegal water consumption, especially in villas”.

In addition, he announced that municipal teams would be conducting house to house inspections and encouraged residents to check that their water supply has been connected legally.

He said the money raised from eradicating illegal water consumption would pay the salaries of municipal workers and allow for more investment into the town and added “I once again invited everyone to behave appropriately for Kyrenia”.

“Our fight against illegal water usage will continue until the last illegal cubic metre of water is billed”, he said.