Cyprus-Forum.com

[G.Man]

Even though i agree we should be more careful with water, a point to note is most village houses have bore holes which they draw water from to wash down the patios, wash cars etc. its not always clean drinknig water they use cos they pay for it. Thats why they the streets as well.

I have a bore hole on my house and we use this water for outside usage.

its free and not drinkable.

just my 2 cents worth.

Indeed, my house has a bore hole as well.. hence my £5 a month water bills

[devil]

Even though i agree we should be more careful with water, a point to note is most village houses have bore holes which they draw water from to wash down the patios, wash cars etc. its not always clean drinknig water they use cos they pay for it. Thats why they the streets as well.

I have a bore hole on my house and we use this water for outside usage.

its free and not drinkable.

just my 2 cents worth.

You may think it's free, but ask those farmers who use the same water table when it dries up, and have to import water from elsewhere. During the late 1990s, taking water out of boreholes caused the volume of water in aquifers to drop by 80% and they still have not recovered. Many water tables near the coast have had salt water infiltration because of dropping levels, rendering them totally unfit for agricultural use.

Remember also that near-surface water (<300 m) also infiltrates into the deeper aquifers used for extracting water for purifying into drinking water, so wasting this water does reduce the availability of mains water.

Every drop of water from boreholes and wells is as precious as the potable water and must be treated with the same respect.

People with selfish attitudes like yours contributed greatly to the rationing in the latter half of the 1990s.

[G.Man]

People with selfish attitudes like yours contributed greatly to the rationing in the latter half of the 1990s.

If that is true, then the govt should be doing something about it... in the UK the water companies have rights to all water sources on your property even rainwater!!!!

Main problem tho is the people that continue to wash down their patios etc everyday because they dont like a bit of dust around...

I sat on my parents balcony just before Christmas and watched 3 of their neighbours hose down their patios for over 1 hour....

My father was shaking his head in disbelief and saying that nobody would believe there was a water shortage to watch the actions of the people...

To my mind it needs more investment in desalination and increased charges for usage over a certain volume consumed per capita...

Somebody said to me the shortage was caused by the tourists who shower more than once a day...



Yup, cleanliness of body is such a problem



PS. Just what is the use of shutting off the supply every other day, when it just means the tank refils on the day they turn it back on...

[raymanuva]

when we had shortages in larnaca (1998 etc) we bought a huge secondary deposit tank, and we never ever had problems with water again.

[G.Man]

when we had shortages in larnaca (1998 etc) we bought a huge secondary deposit tank, and we never ever had problems with water again.

exactly, so no water is saved...

need to deal with the disease, not the symptoms

[THE HIGHLANDER]

Sounds painful.........when you gota go you gota go !!!!!!!!

[G.Man]

well its persistently raining today...

in nicosia anyway, need a few months of it tho I am guessing.. not that that seems to help the uk...

[devil]

That rain episode is, to coin a phrase, just a drop in a reservoir. I measured 10.8 mm today and it has now stopped raining. Our annual average here is ~400 mm, so we need a month of days like that just to reach average (we already have had ~150 mm from the autumnal rains), but we also have to make up for our profligacy of the past two years and this would need as much again to fill the reservoirs and start topping up the water tables (it would require 10 years of good rain with minimal extraction to really restore them and 20-30 years to restore those where salt water has infiltrated).

The real problem is that Cyprus has no real hydrological policy and never has had. It is aberrant that our ground is like Emmental cheese, full of illicit wells and boreholes. Even more aberrant is that if you want one legally, the Government will actually subsidise the cost of drilling it. With sensible water management, we would have more than enough natural water for everything. With the anarchy that reigns today, we can do nothing.

I was the lead co-author of Water in Cyprus. Read it and you will find many ways how water may be wasted or saved. It was written in 1998, before I settled here but after I had bought my house. A few things have changed since, but the general lines are still valid.

Tourism: the Government has always ensured adequate supplies to the littoral hotels. However, tourists are here for ~20,000,000 person-days. Cypriots are here for 275,000,000 person-days. It is doubtful if tourists consume more than 10% of the water, less than the losses through the ancient distribution system.

[joanna]

I think the problem with Cyprus, is that even though there is little rainfall, they could have better roads with drainage to collect the water, or clear rubbish from the small streams that are meant to fill the dams etc. Ok the greek old ladies dont help with all their street hosing ( i know my mother in law is always at it!) ,complete waste. Today as you all know its bucketing it down, i bet only 10% of the water will actually be collected if that!

[jane12]

Everyone is missing the point.
What's the panic? - if there's no water, drink wine. Problem solved.