February rain fell in all the right places

RAINFALL in February may have been unimpressive, but it fell in the right places and fuelled good flow into the island’s depleted reservoirs, official statistics show.

Twelve wet days brought a total of 64.5 mm of precipitation (up till Wednesday), which represents only 79 per cent of the monthly average. But most of this precipitation missed coastal areas and came as rain and snow on the uplands, with the result that a good proportion of it found its way to behind dam walls.

Latest measurements show a total of 22,392,000 cubic metres of water has entered reservoirs so far this month. This volume is the best monthly total since October and brings dams up to just over 20 per cent of capacity (54, 615,000 cubic metres).

Kouris, with 16,113,000 cubic metres of water, and Asprokremnos, with 11, 380,000 cubic metres, are currently the best filled reservoirs.

The situation is better than at the same time last year (when dams were only 12.6 per cent full) but water officials were keen to stress the drought emergency was not over yet.

Nicosia Water Board said water cuts, in force since last Summer, would continue for the foreseeable future.

“We let the water run on Green Monday as most people were away, but we have not had any instructions from above to stop cuts yet,” a Water Board official said yesterday.

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