Apart from the Nimby (not in my back yard) culture with regard to asphalt factories, migrant centres, kebab shops and so forth we are now seeing this being extended to desalination plants. No coastal community, it appears, wants to have a desalination plant anywhere close to or in view of their coast, because it is considered an eyesore that may reduce the value of real estate with a sea view and put off tourists from visiting.

When at the beginning of the year it was announced that the government planned to set up a mobile desalination plant close to the Ayia Napa coast, all hell broke loose. The area’s hoteliers and business owners of the area were up in arms while the head of Ayia Napa local government organisation (EOA), Yiannis Karousos wrote to the agriculture minister to protest against this outrage, which was incompatible with the character of the area.

“The entrance of the country’s largest tourist resort cannot be turned into a desalination plant attraction,” he wrote in his letter which suggested the ministry found another location for the desalination plant.

This was in early February, at the time when water reserves were so low, there were fears that we would not have adequate water reserves to cover the country’s needs and certainly not enough for the water needs of the Ayia Napa hotels. The government backed down because of this reaction and was lucky because the subsequent rainfall made the setting up of the desalination plant less pressing. We have not heard where the plant will eventually be located.

Now, however, the government will have to deal with similar protests by the community council of Mazotos where it planned to have mobile desalination plant. On Monday the council made public a letter it had sent the president in which he was asked to stop the creation of the plant in its coastal area. The council claimed there had been no study evaluating the environmental impact of such a plant and cited ‘scientists’ who believe the area was unsuitable for a desalination plant, because of its closeness to sensitive eco-systems of the sea.

As there had been a healthy amount of rainfall this year, the government had the time to reconsider decisions it had taken under intense pressure, said the Mazotos council. The question for the government is whether any community council or EOA of a coastal area would welcome the establishment of a desalination plant. Having set a precedent, by giving in to the pressure and abandoning its plan for Ayia Napa, which may have been a foolish idea in the first place, it will now face the Nimby reaction whichever place it chooses for a plant.

The government will have to put its foot down in the case of Mazotos and refuse to back down, because if it does, it will be unable to set up a mobile desalination anywhere in Cyprus.