The websites of ministries and government departments on Tuesday were still down since late on Monday due to a connection problem.
The problem was sparked by a water leakage in the basement of the Ministry of Finance which is next to where the servers of the Department of Information Technology are, according to state radio.
Work to remove the water continues for hours and it is still unknown whether the electronic equipment was damaged and, if yes, to what extent.
Finance Ministry permanent secretary George Panteli said it was difficult to estimate when equipment and websites would be up and running again.
“For safety reasons, the machines have been disconnected so that any damage is repaired and for any remaining water in the basement in question to be removed,” he also said.
“Government websites and email addresses cannot be used until these servers are re-connected,” he added.
Explaining how the basement of the ministry was flooded, Panteli said that there was a leak in one of the large water tanks located in the basement adjacent to the room where the servers are.
The servers provide internet access for the entire government hub, that is, for all government departments.
“We have to see if any systems have been damaged in any way, so now we need to have an assessment by experts. At this stage, we cannot know when all systems will be restored,” he said.
