Well, it has certainly been a wet January! In fact it has been a very wet couple of months, with the press reporting that average rainfall in December reached 169 per cent of the normal for the season. On an island that has a problem with water shortages this can only be a good thing. Although I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t looking forward to the warmer weather!
As I write this editorial the figures released on the website of the Water Development Department, show that reservoir storage today stands at 53.6% of capacity. On the same day last year capacity was only at 16.6%. By the time you read this editorial that figure will have risen again.
For Paphos district the result of all of this rain was plain to see. Mid January there seemed to be water everywhere and along with it the flooded fields, rock slides and road closures. The figures released on the 16th of January revealed that in the last recorded 24 hour period 26,885 Million Cubic Metres of water had flowed into the dams. This is a new record, the last one being 23MCM in 1989.
In the Polis area the dams at Argaka, Pomos and Agia Marina overflowed and Evretou is at two thirds capacity. For Paphos, Mavrokolympos dam is full with Asprokremmos dam at nearly three quarters of capacity and Kannaviou dam at over 50% capacity.
Again at the time of writing, the current capacity in the dams is 156,002 Million Cubic Metres (MCM). To put this into perspective the maximum storage recorded in the dams in 2018 was 68,617 MCM, this was on the 4th April.
Although there is still more to flow into the dams, now is not the time to be complacent with the water that we do have. We must continue to conserve water and to continue to use it wisely.
I would like to thank Mick Pattman for this month’s cover photo of Agia Marina Dam overflowing which was taken on 17th January 2019.
On a different note, our website, www.palscyprus.com continues to be very popular. It is not just a place to find the archived back issues of Pals Magazine. In addition, we feature many of the articles on the website in their own categories. For example we have a section for the Phoenix Walking Group and Cyprus Rambling Club’s walks in Paphos & Limassol Districts. The site also has additional features including entertainment listings, information pages, News and a business directory. Many of the articles on our website are also on our Facebook page – Pals Magazine Cyprus which continues to be a great reference point to keep up to date with what’s happening.
I hope that you enjoy reading this month’s edition.
