ALMOST half way through the hydrological year, inflow to the island’s reservoirs is at its worst levels since 2005, the water development department said yesterday.
Since October – the beginning of the hydrological year – only around 6.0 million cubic metres of water have flowed into the island’s 18 reservoirs. During the 2009/2010 season, 70 million cubic metres had reached the reservoirs during the same period – more than tenfold that of the current season.
And according to Sophocles Aletraris, the principal water engineer at the department, although rainfall last month was 110 per cent of normal, most of the water went into the sea or the ground.
“Plenty of rain has fallen over the last two months but not in the right places,” said Aletraris. “For us what is important is that the rain flows into the dams and not necessarily that we’ve had 110 per cent rain fall for December,” he added.
He said that in December 2009, 23 million cubic metres poured into the dams but in December 2010 only a 5.0 million cubic metres reached the reservoirs.
January has not fared much better halfway in to the month. The same time last year 40 times more water had entered the reservoirs.
Aletraris said the reason for the dearth of inflow to the dams was because the bulk of the rainfall over the last two months has fallen not just on the coast but on the coastal towns themselves – in Paphos, Limassol and Larnaca.
He said in this way a lot of rainwater has been lost because there are no reservoirs close to the main towns.
“We need it to rain more in the mountains and inland so we can have it run off into the reservoirs,” Aletraris said.
Cyprus has around 18 dams with a total capacity to hold over 290 million cubic metres of water. This time last year reserves stood at around 53 per cent of the total compared to just over 48 per cent yesterday.
Much water was also lost in the last months of 2010 due to evaporation from the reservoirs because of the unseasonally high temperatures the island experiences in the last four months of 2010. The high temperatures also put a strain on supply with increased amounts going to farms and households.
Environment Commissioner Charalambos Theopemptou has another solution in the form of water reducing measures and conservation by not letting a drop of rain go to waste no matter where it falls.
According to Theopemptou a school in Dhali has taken steps to make use of their rainwater, by installing a system on the roof that collects the water, filters it then diverts it to the garden. Other EU countries such as Germany have already begun measures to utilise rainwater for flushing toilets and washing clothes, simply by installing a system to filter the water.
Despite the discouraging statistics and new worries about another prolonged drought like the one see in the middle of the last decade, water cuts are not on the cards for this summer due to the operation of the desalination plants along with careful management of water reserves, the government says. More rain is also on the way according to the Meteorological Service.
Today is set to start off fairly clear but with clouds appearing by the afternoon, bringing isolated showers which will continue into the evening. Temperatures today will reach around 16 degrees inland, 18 degrees on the coast and seven degrees in the mountains.
The showers will continue through to Monday and may even turn into storms in some areas, with snow fall on some of the higher Troodos peaks.
