Heavy rainfall over recent days has delivered a boost to Cyprus’s water reserves, with this March shaping up as the second best for dam inflows in the past ten years, according to official data from the Water Development Department.
Total inflow over the last three days alone reached 12.3 million cubic metres (MCM) — equivalent to the entire annual output of a desalination unit producing 34,000 cubic metres per day. Of that, 6.2 MCM flowed into the dams of the Southern Conveyor system, the island’s most strategically important water network.
Total inflow for March has now reached 20.7 MCM, behind only March 2019, when 32.3 MCM was recorded.
Island-wide storage at the major dams now stands at 78.1 MCM, representing 26.9% capacity — up from 71.8 MCM (24.7%) at the same point last year. The Southern Conveyor Unified Scheme holds 42.1 MCM (22.2%), compared with 46.2 MCM (24.4%) a year ago, while Kouris dam has improved year-on-year, with current storage at 27.9 MCM (24.3%) against 23.1 MCM (20.1%) last year.
As recently as February, Cyprus’s water reserves stood at just 13.7% of total storage capacity, with dam inflows at their lowest since hydrological records began in 1901.
The government has committed €196 million for water measures in 2026 alone, including €140 million earmarked specifically for purchasing desalinated water, with authorities racing to have 12 desalination units operational by summer.
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