Water scarcity has always been the second (for some, the first) biggest problem facing Cyprus after the Cyprus issue itself. In the 1980s, a significant effort was made to address it through the construction of dams.
However, with the passage of time and climate change, it has become clear that dams cannot solve the problem, since they require rainfall to accumulate water. But it hasn’t rained enough, and perhaps rainfall will never again be sufficient for our ever-increasing needs.
What are we doing beyond warnings that we’ll be thirsty, that measures are coming, that water will become increasingly precious?
Mobile desalination units will be installed, officials say. These, if all goes well, will be operational by October. Of course, almost nothing is completed on time, so no matter how optimistic one might be, October remains an uncertain deadline.
But even if this target is met, are desalination units the solution? They are certainly a partial solution, but not without environmental consequences.
This is not just a bad year that will pass. Scientists have been warning us for some time. Mediterranean countries, including Cyprus, are threatened with drought.
This January was already the second driest since rainfall records began, while October 2024 was recorded as the driest. And this is no longer a pattern that alternates with rainy winters.
Meanwhile, we continue to build, to want more tourists, to maintain lawns at homes, hotels, and golf courses, to add swimming pools, and to rely on visitors’ understanding that when they read the sign “water is precious, don’t waste it,” they won’t leave the shower running beyond a quick rinse.
Farmers have already been warned they will receive reduced water for irrigation, but told not to worry because they will be compensated.
Consumers will pay for the reduced or non-existent production, and in the long term agriculture will suffer, as no one will want to sow seeds that won’t germinate or tend to trees that won’t bear fruit due to drought.
If we say we need a comprehensive policy to tackle water scarcity, it might sound like a joke.
It took the dams drying up for us to realise that action is needed.
So we’ll get through this year again, and then we’ll see. Perhaps it will rain… In the worst case, we’ll accept Tatar’s offer.