| CONGREGATIONS in churches across Cyprus last Sunday, for the second consecutive week, said prayers for rain. The absence of rain this winter is causing a serious drought, and is likely to have an impact on agriculture and tourism, the island’s main sources of income.
The Greek Orthodox Archbishop, Chrysostomos II, in a circular distributed to churches, said: “We will all be given the chance to send prayers to our Heavenly Father to end the drought on our island. We have no doubt God will hear our prayers and send us the rain we so badly need.”
Church attendance last week was reported to be unusually high. “We all felt the urge to pray for rain,” Nicola Michaelides said, after a service at Ayyios Pavlos Church in Nicosia with her three children. “It should be winter, but it feels like summer. Something is wrong.”
With reservoir levels low and getting lower by the day, the authorities are looking at the possibility of importing a mobile desalination unit, to boost the two plants already operating on the island.
The head of the Cyprus Water Authority, Christodoulos Artemis, said that he was happy that his efforts to cope with the months ahead were receiving a spiritual backing in the form of church prayers: “I am encouraged by the prayers. Everything helps.”
The water shortage has also become an issue in the campaigning for the presidential elections in February. Opposition politicians have accused the President, Tassos Papadopoulos, of being negligent in taking steps to deal with the drought. “With his statements to justify the lack of his government’s policy, the President is more or less telling us that it’s God’s fault,” said Georgios Tasou MP. |
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