December rains well below normal

Staff reporter

THE NEW millennium will dawn over Cyprus amid dire predictions of deepening drought.

For when the clock turns into January 2000, Cyprus will – short of an intervening miracle – have recorded one of its driest Decembers ever, according to the Water Development Department (WDD).

On the surface, Cyprus has 25 per cent more water – 28,602,000 cubic metres, or 28.6 billion litres – behind its dams this year than it did last year at this time, bringing total storage up to 10.5 per cent of reservoir capacity.

This compares to the 22,983,000 cubic metres of water that were in island reservoirs at the end of December 1998, when storage was at only 8.4 per cent of total capacity.

But the figures are misleading, as this winter’s rainy season, which began on October 1 is shaping up to be one of the driest on record.

Only 42.2 millimetres of rain have fallen over Cyprus since December 1, a figure representing about 40 per cent of the 105.6mm average rainfall that Cyprus gets in a “normal” December. the WDD said.

Despite recent storms, last December’s runoff into reservoirs was 12-times this December’s total. Put another way, this month’s runoff was only eight per cent of last December’s.

So while dams may be fuller this year than last, this December has been so dry that only 972,000 cubic metres of rainfall actually made it into the island’s reservoirs this month.

This compares to the 11,381,000 cubic metres (11.3 billion litres) of water from the island’s mountains, hillsides and streams that flowed into Cyprus reservoirs last December, the WDD said.

Even the last few days of thunder storms produced only 48,000 cubic metres of reservoir runoff, the WDD said.

Overall, the island has had only 35 per cent of the average rainfall of a “normal” meteorological year, the WDD said, adding that Cyprus can expect no more rainfall before the new millennium dawns.