The existing water infrastructure has been the result of master-plans, extensive and comprehensive feasibility studies and sound workmanship.

The implementation of Government Irrigation Schemes resulted in the development of irrigation in certain regions, which in turn created a water demand that did not exist before. This development was based on the need to achieve a sufficiently high internal rate of return, in order to have an economically sound project to finance. However, this policy should have been more prudent in view of the arid to semi-arid nature of the climate of the island. In addition, the design of water works did not take into account the drought periods experienced in 1931-33 and 1970-73, assuming that the 40-year interval of average/wet hydrological years was sufficient for the evaluation of the yield of the projects.

Therefore, the design and evaluation of projects was based on the assumption of higher yields and consequently larger areas that could be irrigated by each. Of course, these decisions were not only based on economic evaluation but also on pressures by political lobbies and the local farmers. Further to that, the evaluation did not consider the change of cropping patterns, which resulted in the adoption of water-intensive crops (bananas compared to table grapes). The devastating results from the above planning were felt during the intense drought experienced from 1990 and onwards.

In other cases, the decrease of employment in the agricultural sector and the boost in the tourist industry in certain areas did not allow for the development of agriculture as planned; thus the use of water works was limited. The phenomenon was aggravated by the reduced export prices for certain agricultural products, a fact that also proved that the market studies performed during the feasibility studies were not exhaustive or insightful enough.