The terrible floods in Spain demonstrate the importance of a properly functioning early warning system. This valuable tool for saving lives does not yet exist in Cyprus. It is expected that the corresponding tender for the installation of the system will be announced in December 2025.
This was announced on Thursday, October 31, by the Minister of Internal Affairs of Cyprus, Konstantinos Ioannou.
“The system will be able to send early warning messages to mobile phone subscribers,” the head of the ministry noted.
Let us recall that in April 2023, the government of Cyprus assured that by the beginning of 2024, an early warning system for emergency situations via mobile phones would be operational on the island. Notifications will automatically appear on citizens' mobile phone screens, without the need to open the message.
However, this initiative has not yet been implemented. As it turned out, the authorities are looking for options for integrating a new service with the emergency number 112. It is expected that a tender for the installation of this system will be announced before the end of the year.
“It so happened that we were also assigned number 112, and we definitely had to go through all these procedures so that the two systems were interoperable. We are in the process of confirming some points of the documents and will re-open the tender soon,” said Panagiotis Liasidis, a spokesman for civil defence.
The only thing that is certain is that Cyprus will remain for another year without a system to protect its citizens in danger. Until then, they will continue to be warned via sirens or door to door.
Meanwhile, Cyprus is one of the last European countries to adopt this mechanism. Its operation earlier could have saved lives, as in the case of the deadly fire in the mountainous Larnaca in 2021. In Greece, he started working after the tragedy in Mati. Of course, installing a system is not a panacea.
Source: alphanews.live
