The scenarios being considered by the Water Development Department (WDD) are alarming, aiming to prevent the nightmare of water supply cuts, as current data suggests this could be a threat in 2025 and 2026.
After two consecutive years of low rainfall, reduced inflows into dams, and consequently reduced reserves, it was decided to cover 100% of the water needs for domestic supply from Governmental Water Projects and concurrently to meet irrigation needs to the extent permitted by water reserves in dams, maintaining the minimum necessary safety reserves to ensure adequacy for at least the next two years.
Based on projections for the next two years, the average inflow of the 30-year period (1994 – 2023) of 34.4 million cubic meters of water is taken into account.
Based on this forecast and the water distribution, the reserves in the Southern Pipeline dams will be depleted, endangering the coverage of water needs for domestic supply.
The total water needs from dams in 2022 were 74.1 million cubic meters, in 2023 71.5 million cubic meters, and for 2024, as well as 2025 and 2026, it is projected at 44.8 million cubic meters. In 2024, 106 million cubic meters will be allocated for domestic supply: 90 million for the areas covered by the Unified South Pipeline (USP) and 16 million for the Paphos project.
The needs will be met by 70 million from desalination, 30 million from dams, and 6 million from boreholes.
Regarding irrigation, 39.7 million cubic meters of water will be allocated, a quantity reduced by 33.7% compared to last year when 59.9 million cubic meters were consumed.
From the USP dams, reduced quantities will be allocated by 54%, from 27.5 to 12.6 million cubic meters.
Overall, from all dams, quantities will be reduced by 45.6%, from 43.9 consumed last year to 23.9 million cubic meters.
From the USP, 23.6 million cubic meters will be allocated for irrigation and livestock farming, with 12.6 coming from dams and 11.0 from recycled water and boreholes in the USP area.
This quantity is reduced by 15% for the Limassol areas and by 50% for the remaining areas of the USP (Kokkinohoria, Vasilikos Pentaschinos, Kiti–Mazotos, Athenou), compared to the quantity consumed in 2023.
The overall distribution of available water quantities by region based on the proposal is as follows:
For the Kokkinohoria region, which is the largest consumer of irrigation water in Cyprus, the proposal is to allocate 8.5 million cubic meters compared to 17 consumed in 2023. In the Limassol areas, it is proposed to allocate 11.2 compared to 13.2 in 2023.
Vasilikos Pentaschinos is proposed to receive 1.2 compared to 2.4 consumed in 2023, in the Kiti – Mazotos area 1.5 compared to 2.9, and in Athenou 1.2 compared to 2.4 consumed.
Therefore, quantities will be reduced by 14.3 million compared to last year, corresponding to a decrease of 37.8%.
