TEXT: 00:00 – 01:20 Each year, millions of tourists flock to Cyprus, confident that for a week or two at least they are leaving behind the wet and cloudy weather of northern Europe. But it is precisely that good weather that is now causing this Mediterranean island its worst droughts in living memory and threatens to seriously harm the holiday industry it created.
After four consecutively dry winters, the Kouris damn, Cyprus’ largest reservoir, contains just two point five per cent of its capacity. The problem has reached such serious proportions that the government has been forced to ship eight million cubic meters of water at an estimated cost of forty million Euros from Greece, and has also ordered the construction of numerous desalination plants in an effort to make sure the demands of the island’s locals and tourists are met.
But the question remains whether these measures will be enough hold back the ravages climate change is having on the landscape of this once-green Mediterranean island, and whether it will be able to continue catering for the millions who visit each year.
With farmer’s dependent on around seventy five per cent of the island’s water supplies, they are the first to be hit by the drought. Many complain of progressively falling yields as the rains repeatedly fail and groundwater reserves diminish. Farmer Nicolas Nicoletis says that this year’s yield is probably the worst he has ever experienced.
INT. 01:21 – 01:39 Farmer - Nicolas Nicoletis
We planted barley for the animals, and because it didn’t rain it stayed small and didn’t produce seeds. We don’t have a sufficient income for the family… It’s a loss.
TEXT: 01:40 – 01:53 Not only have the rains failed, meaning that Nicoletis’ barley has died before reaching maturity, the well from which he previously pumped fifty cubic meters of water per day onto fields for growing fruit now only yields five cubic meters .
INT. 01:55 – 02:08 Farmer - Nicolas Nicoletis
If we had enough water to irrigate properly this melon would have been three times bigger and it would have been of better quality. I could have given it to the market to sell.
TEXT: 02:09 – 02:36 But it’s not only farmers who are suffering from the effects of the drought. The town of Famagusta on the eastern side of the island has long suffered from water shortages, but as its population grows and groundwater reserves dry up it is fast reaching crisis point. Its mayor Oktay Kayalp says that with the town receiving only five thousand cubic meters of water per day from groundwater supplies for a population of forty thousand, he is worried about the short and long-term prospects for that part of the island.
INT. 02:38 – 02:54 Mayor Famagusta – Mr. Oktay Kayalp
The minimum figure given by the world health organisation is two hundred and fifty litres of water per day. That means we are only giving half of that amount.
TEXT: 02:56 – 03:09 Families too are bearing the brunt of the drought as the authorities cut water supplies to force consumers to reduce consumption. Water restrictions were not unheard in the capital Nicosia, but this year they were introduced in March, much earlier than ever before.
INT. 03:10 – 03:30 Christos Xenophontos
The most difficult time is during the weekends when there’s 2 days without having any running water. It’s certainly an inconvenience. I mean I’m all for saving water and so forth but the fact that… we don’t have it for so long… It’s making life difficult.
TEXT: 03:31 – 03:38 Receiving water for only a few hours a week means that normal household chores have to be arranged around times when the mains supply is actually on.
INT. 03:39 – 03:49 Cally Xenophontos
So I’ll be doing this for about five hours today and then iron them on a non-water day and start again on… when do we get water again?… Thursday… On Thursday. On Thursday again.
TEXT: 03:50 – 04:01 Whether this is to become a permanent feature of daily life in Cyprus remains to be seen, but it is certain that without such stringent water-saving measures, life in the Cypriot capital this summer would be untenable.
INT. 04:02 – 04:28 Christos and Cally Xenophontos Family
Christos: Long term I don’t know if the problem will get worse or not. I’m hoping it will not. I’m hoping that there will be a solution. Something will happen and we will have running water for more than just basically if you think about it twenty four to thirty two hours a week…so…
Cally: We’ll have to go stay in the hotels cause their supplies aren’t cut off so we’ll go stay at a hotel for a few days and enjoy our water.
TEXT: 04:30 – 04:54 With almost three million tourists coming to the island each year, a figure three times the resident population of the island – tourism is undoubtedly the most important sector in the growing economy. The authorities are therefore keen that no harm comes to the industry as a result of the drought. But although the government gives priority to the needs of hoteliers, the rising costs of maintaining supplies means that many in the industry are taking their own measures to cut consumption.
INT. 04:55 – 05:19 Venus beach hotel manager – Devrim Celal
To save water we are taking a two prong approach. One is using what we have as efficiently as we can. Second one is making sure we have enough of it. To make sure we have enough of it, things like that might seem like a waste, is watering the garden, watering the swimming pool that evaporates every single day we recycle the waste water from the building itself so it keeps itself sustained.
TEXT: 05:21 – 05:48 But despite the water-saving measures being implemented by some hoteliers and the hardships suffered by the majority of residents, the severity of the drought has yet to sink in for some – including it seems the authorities. In violation of the hosepipe ban, there are those who still believe that it is their right to use water as if it were not a valuable and limited resource, and even the Nicosia municipality has been witnessed watering roadside grass verges at midday.
INT. 05:49 – 06:18 UNDP Environment Analyst – Nicolas Jarraud
I think that it’s the water consumption patterns combined with maybe not enough resourses to justify those patterns which could be part of the problem. For example agriculture uses seventy five percent of the water on this Island, and yet the reservoirs are empty. At this level I would encourage a certain amount of foresight from the decision makers.
TEXT: 06:19 – 06:29 The water board, however, says serious measures have been introduced to prevent wastage and is seeking alternative ways to supply the island with enough water to carry it through the long-term and short-term drought.
INT. 06:31 – 06:46 Water development department – Artemis Achilleos Nicolaou
The one immediate measure that’s been taken is to transport water from Greece to the Island. The two desalination plants of the Island … there getting extended so they can produce more water.
TEXT: 06:47 – 06:57 But not everyone agrees that desalination will provide a long-term solution to Cyprus’ water woes. Green MP George Perdikis says that rather than solving the problem, it could feasibly add to it.
INT. 06:58 – 07:23 Cyprus Green Party – MP Mr. George Perdikis
In Cyprus we produce electricity from fossil fuels, from oil, and desalinisation plants use a lot of energy. Therefore more desalination means more production of electricity, more consumption of oil, more pollution in the atmosphere, more environmental destruction, an increase in temperature and therefore a greater shortage of water. This is a vicious circle.
INT. 07:24 – 07:46 Water development department – Artemis Achilleos Nicolaou
We had droughts in the past in Cyprus which were on and off so probably they were thinking that o.k … the problem will go away next year or it will rain so there won’t be a need to act immediately. So there has been a little delay.
TEXT: 07:49 – 08:16 This golf course is watered using its own desalination plant. The others on the island however are all dependent on local water supplies. Perdikis is critical of the government’s plans to promote golf tourism as a way of giving new life to a tourism industry that has seen visitor numbers dropping in recent years. He claims the government has plans to increase the number of golf courses on the island to 14 over the coming years – a sign, he says, that the government is failing to understand the severity of the situation.
INT. 08:17 – 08:36 Cyprus Green Party – MP Mr. George Perdikis
We consider it stupid to on one hand to desalinate the sea with a huge environmental and energy cost an then on the other hand to promote this form of development which is very seriously water consuming. A lot of water is used in this kind of development.
TEXT: 08:37 – 08:46 With Cyprus now sweltering under the relentless summer sun, people are asking themselves what the future holds, and whether the days when water could be used almost without a second thought will return.
INT. 08:48 – 09:04 UNDP Environment Analyst – Nicolas Jarraud
This problem is obviously not limited to Cyprus, there is a global issue with climate change and more specifically the Eastern Mediterranean region is particularly at risk of desertification and the arid climate only seems to be getting more arid as the years go by.
INT. 09:05 – 09:18 Cyprus Green Party – MP Mr. George Perdikis
We need to think globally and act locally. If the Mediterranean dries up the whole of Europe will lose a jewel, an important environmental and economic asset.
INT. 09:19 – 09:34 Farmer - Nicolas Nicoletis
We are hoping it will rain in the winter so we will have water and we’ll be able to continue our work, we’ll be able to cultivate. If it doesn’t rain again, we won’t plant next year and we won’t be able to continue our work.
TEXT: 09:36 – 09:48 Whether or not it rains this winter, searching for new water sources has become a priority. But while the Government comes up with sophisticated and often expensive methods, some are taking the matter into their own hands.