A fourth successive year of drought has turned rain into a national issue for Cyprus, as authorities say downpours were needed for days in order to manage any inroads in allievating a worsening situation.
'Flow into dams has been tragically low', said Water Development Board Senior Engineer Marios Hadjicostis, in remarks to the Cyprus News Agency, noting that over the past three months, flow has further shrinked to just 1.7 million cubic metres of water.
'This is insignificant', he added.
Capacity keeps dropping as consumption remains steadily higher than the flow, with Hadjicostis indicating that for any significant improvement to take place, average flow must increase to around 10 to 12 million cubic metres.
Average October to December flows over the past 35 years have been estimated at 13 million cubic metres, further pointing to the significant shrinking in 2025.
The highest rainfall has been recorded in the Polis Chrysochous coastal region (170% of the average), as well as Nicosia, Athiainou (140%) and Frenaros (115%). Bad news is that these areas don't have dams and water has not been stored, but essentially wasted.
'Many successive days of torrential rains, hours at a time, are required to reverse this picture', the Water Board official added.
Ηe underscored that Cyprus needed atmospheric pressure system that turn out significant quantities of rain and not across the coast, but over the mountains and the basins of major dams.
The only dam to actually achieve an increase in capacity has actually been Mavrokolympos in the Paphos district, now at almost a third of capacity.
'The goal here is to at least cover next year's demand and ideally store water until 2028', he further stressed.
Hadjicostis expressed the hope that 2026 will turn into a good rain year that will see the storage of adequate quantities and cover the needs of all consumers, particularly farmers that have been lacking necessary cultivations water for years.
He called on the public to refrain from wasting water, irrespective of weather conditions, noting that this should become a daily mentality.
'Droughts in Cyprus aren't about to stop and climate change is making things worse'.
It all came down to proper, responsible management. All of the time.
SOURCE: CNA