NICOSIA, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- A rainy January which followed a better-than-usual December has brought broad smiles to the faces of Cypriots, as reservoirs on which Cyprus depends for water have just reached the 50 percent mark of their total capacity.
Dams across the eastern Mediterranean island collected about 145 million cubic meters of water by Saturday, Phaedros Rousis, top technical manager at the Water Development Department (WDD) told Xinhua in a statement.
He said that this quantity, which represents 50 percent of the total storage capacity of 18 big, medium and small reservoirs, is enough to cover irrigation needs for the next two years.
"This is the best winter season of the last 10 years so far and we expected that more water will flow into the dams, given that there are two more winter months and enough snow accumulated on the mountains to sustain water flow for some time", Rousis said.
The above average precipitation brought relief to WDD officials, as at the start of the meteorological year which begins on October 1, dams held water equal to about 17 percent of their capacity.
Cyprus has a mostly dry climate typical of Mediterranean countries with 300 sunny days and an average of 480 millimeters of annual precipitation.
The weather follows a pattern of more or less seven to eight meteorological years of drought and one of satisfactory rain.
Water collected in the dams is currently distributed almost exclusively to farmers as the island's 1.2 million population depends on costly desalination water for its household needs. Water from dams is distilled for household use only in the case of malfunction of one of the desalination plants.
Four desalination plants are currently operating on the island, with a fifth one in the stage of construction.
Rousis said that rainfall from October 1 to December 31 amounted to 178 millimeters or about 170 percent of normal precipitation. January was even better, with precipitation reaching 178 percent of the total during its first half.
"January was the best month of the last 10 years and one of the best in almost a century", Rousis said.
January's precipitation contributed close to 70 million cubic meters of water held by the dams, out of the total flow of 135 million cubic meters.
After 16 continuous rainy days in January, Cyprus currently enjoys a spell of sunny and relatively warm weather.
Meteorologists say the mild weather is nearing its end and predict more rainy days as of next week.
