News

  14-01-2025

During its meeting yesterday evening, the LDLGO Board reviewed the current water situation, taking into account the ongoing drought and the critically low levels of stored water in the dams. Given the current conditions and the potential water crisis that may arise during the summer months, the Board has decided to formally request the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development & Environment to take the following actions:

1. To safeguard uninterrupted water supply for residential and commercial use, the limited water reserves stored in dams should be strictly reserved for potable water supply.
2. There is an urgent need to accelerate the construction or expansion of desalination plants where required. In the LDLGO’s jurisdiction, the Episkopi Desalination Plant has a production capacity of 40,000 cubic metres (m³) of water per day, whereas, during summer months, the maximum daily demand reaches 90,000 m³. Thus, urgent measures must be taken to address this deficit of 50,000 m³ per day.
3. Significant infrastructure upgrades are required to reduce water losses in communities that are not yet within LDLGO’s water supply network but are expected to be integrated soon.

The LDLGO Board expresses its concern regarding the impending water crisis and urges the competent Ministry to take immediate action so as to prevent severe shortages in the coming summer. Decisive action today is the only way to avoid major problems in the near future, which could negatively impact all key economic sectors of the country.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development & Environment is primarily responsible for ensuring the protection and sourcing of the necessary water resources that Cyprus urgently needs.