Nicosia municipal pool closed to public for fifth year

Nicosia’s municipal swimming pool will not be open to the public until next year, municipality spokeswoman Petrina Kakoulli said on Tuesday.

It has now been closed to the public for five years.

Speaking to the Cyprus Mail, she conceded that the first phase of renovation works at the swimming pool have now been completed, and what will be the public pool is now back in service.

However, with the second competition pool and some of the outbuildings still undergoing renovations, the public pool has been reserved entirely for the use of aquatic athletes for the duration of the summer.

This deal was cemented on Monday by the signing of an agreement by outgoing Nicosia mayor Constantinos Yiorkadjis and Cyprus Sports Organisation chairman Yiannis Ioannou.

However, while the contract is good news for aquatic athletes, it means a fifth consecutive year in which Nicosia residents will go without a municipal swimming pool for a full summer season.

The pool was first opened in 1989, but first closed during the Covid-19 pandemic and then began renovations worth €6.5 million.

The municipality had said in 2023 that the renovations will mark a “historic development for the city”.

“The total reconstruction of the swimming pool’s facilities was absolutely imperative as the infrastructure was built in the 1980s and has not been seriously upgraded since then,” they said.