Water levels remain critically low despite recent rains

The weekend rains may have brought relief to the persisting water scarcity, but they are far from sufficient with overall water levels remaining at only 17 per cent, the water development department (WDD) said on Monday.

“Certainly the picture is much better than it was on Friday, but we remain at low levels,” WDD engineer Marios Hadjicostis told the Cyprus News Agency.

He said the rain was “gold” for the dams, recalling that water levels stood at only 9 per cent on January 1, marking one of the lowest water levels recorded in recent years.

Following the rain, the reservoirs are now 17.2 per cent full, a total of 50 million cubic metres, which marks a 3.1 per cent increase from the 14.1 per cent (41 million cubic metres) on Friday.

“Today it is lower than last year’s low, but it is satisfactory that we had a two-day period with a satisfactory inflow of 9 million,” he added.

Yet, Hadjicostis warned that the overall situation remained dire. He underlined that current water reserves persisted at lower levels than those recorded during the same period last year, when the dams were 26 per cent full.

“We still need an additional 30 millimeters this month to reach the normal amount of rainfall, but it is not predicted according to the forecast,” he said.

According to Hadjicostis, average rainfall for February amounts to 81.6 mm, while only 50 has been recorded so far this month.

Meanwhile, he said that the past days rain occurred primarily in the mountains, contributing more substantially to the supply of reservoirs than rain in coastal areas or lowlands.

Despite the low water levels, Hadjicostis expressed cautious optimism about the forecast for the hydrological year, comparing the current inflow of 28.4 cubic metres with the total 32 million cubic metre inflow in Cyprus’ 10th worst year in 1995.

“It is not the driest winter,” he said.

Hadjicostis highlighted that additional solutions, including the creation of additional desalination units, to combat the ongoing water crisis were currently being considered

The heavy rainfall caused the Klirou and Pomos dams to reach full capacity and overflow over the weekend, following the overflowing of the Kalopanayiotis dam the days preceding that.

Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou on Monday called on the public to be mindful of water consumption.

She spoke of overconsumption with some individuals using up to 700 litres a day, far exceeding the recommended daily water use of 120 litres per person to see a ten per cent reduction in the overall water use.

“We are doing everything as a government. There is nothing we could have done that we did not do,” she said.

Agriculture ministry permanent secretary Andreas Gregoriou said the situation was tragic and announced that seven new desalination plans would be constructed by the end of the year.

The additional units, in combination with the projects that have either been implemented or are being implemented, are expected to increase daily capacity to 157,000 m3 .

This will result in the daily capacity reaching a total of 240,000 m3, while by 2029, at least two more permanent units are set to be completed.

In the context of efforts to combat Cyprus’ severe water crisis, Paphos district governor Charalambos Pittokopitis had recently announced expansion of the Kouklia desalination plant of up to 30,000m³ by summer 2026.

The unit had burnt down in December 2024 and was made fully operational in September 2025, with its current maximum capacity standing at 15,000m³.