Kamares flood control project to ease chronic flooding, says district chief

Larnaca’s Kamares flood control project, due for completion in 2027, will largely resolve the area’s long-standing flooding problems, Larnaca district government chief Angelos Hadjicharalambous said on Saturday.

He said the project had been anticipated for many years, particularly after extensive damage to homes and properties in the Kamares area caused by flooding at the end of 2014.

According to Hadjicharalambous, the project was initially scheduled to be implemented by the state in 2015, later transferred to the Larnaca Sewerage Board and is now being carried out by the district government.

The project includes widening and deepening the Kamares flood control channel, as well as connecting all adjacent rainwater networks to it, among other works.

Hadjicharalambous said that current works upstream of Dryadon street include demolishing the existing concrete-lined channel and constructing a new open rectangular channel lined with concrete at a lower level, along with adapting an upstream open earthen channel.

The aim of the project, he added, is to address the long-standing flooding issues observed since the events of 2014 and to protect residential areas within the municipalities of Larnaca and Aradippou that lie in the Kalo Chorio river basin.

“No matter how many projects have been carried out in Larnaca – and there have been a lot of rainwater projects – we cannot say with certainty that the problem of 2014 will not be repeated,” he said.

At the same time, he explained that the new infrastructure will enable rapid drainage of large water volumes during severe storms, even if rainwater networks overflow, thereby minimising flood risks.

The project is estimated to cost around €7 million and is expected to be completed in 2027. However, Hadjicharalambous said works are “progressing very quickly and it is likely that the project will be completed before the set deadlines”.

After the completion of the Kamares project, the district government will move ahead with a follow-up phase aimed at fully serving the rapidly expanding Vergina area of Aradippou municipality, seeking central government funding as pledged by the late interior minister Socrates Hasikos.

Initial estimates place the cost at between €3-4 million, pending the completion of a study expected by the end of the year.

“We will move forward with this specific project, with the aim of definitively ending and resolving the flooding problem in the area,” Hadjicharalambous said.