Ministry looks to ending water cuts

AGRICULTURE Minister Michalis Polynikis said he was optimistic about future water supplies yesterday, adding that cuts would be lifted for the holiday period.
From tomorrow until January 8, water will be continuously available he said. He added that the Ministry of Agriculture will also re-examine the whole issue of water cuts in the New Year, with a view to ending them.
“It seems that until now things have been going well. However, it is important that our management remains within the forecast framework,” he said.
He added that the government is on course to complete its pre-election pledges to resolve the water crisis, concluding with the construction of its last planned desalination plant.
Polynikis’ comments followed an unusually wet couple of months. Between August and the end of November, an average of 1.17 million cubic metres of water flowed into the reservoirs per month. This is over treble the amount recorded for the same period in 2007 and 2008.
Regarding the reservoirs, the minister reported a good flow into the Kourris, Asprokremmos and Avdimou dams, adding that about 1.5 million cubic metres of water had flowed into the dams in total this year, making total stored water around 1.86 million cubic metres.
With additional desalination plants under construction, the government now aims to store up enough water to be able to begin providing it to agricultural producers in 2011. “We do not only want to be able to give farmers enough to survive. We want them to be able to increase their production to a satisfactory level,” he said.
The heavy rainfall seen in the past months is forecast to continue, at least in the short term.
An area of low pressure moving north eastwards over Cyprus today is expected to bring clouds, occasional localised rainfall, thunderstorms and strong winds across the island this afternoon. Temperatures are expected to rise to 17 degrees in the interior, 19 degrees around the coast and 7 degrees in the mountains.
Tomorrow is likely to be clear and slightly warmer. Localised rains may return on Tuesday, which is expected to begin fine with gradually increasing cloud.
The thunder and lightning will return on Wednesday with isolated storms and rainfall across the island.

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