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 Cyprus
is considered a water stressed country; the overall Water Exploitation Index is ~ 53%
by far the highest among the EC Member States. The country’s water resources are highly developed,
and the
most economically viable plans have already been implemented. A
comprehensive approach to water management has been adopted
involving conjunctive use of surface and groundwater and
addressing the interrelationships between demands for
domestic and irrigation water. Demand management is used to
control consumption. Methods include pricing,
rationing, increased irrigation efficiency through automated
irrigation systems and water conservation measures.
In Cyprus, INECO will discuss on the
focal water management problem of aquifers' depletion and
sea intrusion. During the past few decades, the heavy over-pumping from groundwater aquifers,
to cope with an increased demand for domestic and irrigation
purposes or to mitigate drought effects, has resulted in the
depletion of almost all inland aquifers. Seawater intrusion
is also a major problem in many coastal aquifers (13
out of 19 groundwater bodies or 68%, are at risk from
over-pumping).
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The overexploitation of groundwater
sources can be mainly attributed to the lack of coordination
in the existing groundwater management framework, which
leads to ineffective and conflicting decision making
processes, social pressures from user groups during the
process of borehole permit issuing and in the lack of
penalties enforcement. There is no social equity among farmers depending
on surface water allocation with those who depend solely on
groundwater; this encourages further exploitation and
mismanagement of aquifers especially when an increase in
public water supply tariffs is implemented. Environmental
concerns were disregarded during the 1960s and 1980s and the
design of many waterworks did not adequately consider the
impacts of such infrastructure to downstream users. This in
turn affected the level of involvement of farmers in the
development of irrigation projects, their adherence to
traditional cropping patterns and groundwater extraction.
Finally, the limited technical capacity
within the government departments renders management
decisions, operations, regulation and control and the
overall implementation of the National Water Policy much
more difficult than before.
Cyprus section of the INECO web site |
