The government “will do everything possible” to ensure the continued supply of water to the Paphos district, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Saturday after a desalination plant between the villages of Mandria and Kouklia was completely destroyed in a fire.

He said he had already spoken with Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou “to see to it that the procedures regarding the mobile desalination units run more quickly so that the uninterrupted supply of water continues”.

He also expressed his relief that there were no casualties as a result of the fire and said he had spoken to Kouklia mukhtar Christodoulos Kaizer.

Panayiotou said her ministry is “in direct contact” with the plant’s contractor and is “already planning the next day.

“Our priority is to continue the uninterrupted supply of water to the area and reopen the plant as soon as possible,” she said, adding that they will have “a better picture of timetables” within the week.

The fire completely destroyed the desalination plant, as fire brigade chief Nikos Logginos told the Cyprus News Agency the fire has now mostly been extinguished, save for “small flare-ups”.

He added that the fire appears to have started in a storage area inside the plant where flammable materials, including filters and electrical cables are stored, before spreading “very quickly”.

Teams from the fire brigade, the police, and the electromechanical service will soon be able to enter the building with the aim of determining the exact cause of the fire after the labour inspection department has ensured it is safe to do so.

Earlier, Paphos district governor Charalambos Pittokopitis said the desalination plant had a total capacity of 15,000 cubic metres of water per day and served the needs of around a third of the town of Paphos as well as a “large part” of the wider district.

“The situation now for the town and the district is very tragic because it was the only desalination unit we had,” he said, adding that plans are afoot for a second unit, with a capacity of 10,000 cubic metres per day, to be installed in the Akamas municipality.

He added that the second desalination unit “must” be operational before the summer because otherwise, “the situation will be tragic”.

For now, he said, the Paphos district will cover its water needs from the reservoirs in Asprokremmos, Kannaviou and Mavrokolympos. The three reservoirs are, according to data released by the water development department on Friday, only 30 per cent full, though they are also the three fullest reservoirs in Cyprus.

Pittokopitis said as the level of water in the reservoirs is low, “if there is not sufficient rainfall to have water in the reservoirs at least to be able to operate refineries at them, the situation in the summer will be tragic, catastrophic”.