Cyprus has a big problem with water right now. Not enough rain has fallen since October. This means the water in the dams is very low. The dams are only 9.2% full. People are using more water than we are getting from rain. This is a problem Cyprus often has.
The Water Development Department shared some worrying numbers. By December 29th, the country's dams had about 26.9 million cubic meters of water. This is much less than usual for this time of year. Marios Chatzikostis is a chief engineer. He said only 1.7 million cubic meters of water came into the dams since October. Normally, this amount is about thirteen million cubic meters.
Using too much water is the main reason for the low levels. In the first 29 days of December, only 1.418 million cubic meters of water entered the dams. This was not enough to replace the water used for homes and farms. Even a small increase of 170,000 cubic meters between December 24th and 29th did not help much. Mr. Chatzikostis said we need ten to twelve million cubic meters of rain to see real change.
Some places got more rain than usual. The Polis Chrysochous area and Nicosia had good rain. However, much of this rain fell near the sea. The water ran into the sea instead of filling the dams. The Troodos mountains, which are important for water, need much more rain and snow. This dry period could affect Cyprus's water for a long time.