|
Cyprus Water Resources
Despite government support of agriculture, the future
of
Turkish Cypriot farming was threatened by an insufficient
supply of
water. Rainfall, long inadequate, in the 1980s was more
meager than
usual. In addition to the problem of scarcity was the
difficulty of
providing an adequate supply of water throughout the year
because
of the high costs of containment and distribution.
Extremely
irregular river flow necessitated large storage
capacities, the
terrain required unusually high dams, and high erosion
rates in the
watersheds required extra storage space to allow for
siltation of
reservoirs. Cost factors deterred significant construction
by the
British administration until the 1950s, when a modest
program was
initiated. After independence was gained in 1960,
construction of
dams and supply systems accelerated. In the 1980s, the
Republic of
Cyprus undertook extensive water development projects.
These Greek
Cypriot projects sometimes had unfavorable effects on
Turkish
Cypriots, because many of the projects trapped water in
the Troodos
Mountains, where most of the island's rainfall and snow
fell, and
prevented the flow of water downstream into the "TRNC."
Turkish Cypriots sought to alleviate their water
shortage by
building dams and a series of irrigation networks. In 1989
a dam
was completed at Geçitköy, at the western end of the
Kyrenia Range,
and seven more dams were under construction, with another
dozen or
so in the planning stage. As of the late 1980s, however,
only about
5 percent of agricultural land was irrigable throughout
the growing
season. In 1976 Turkish Cypriots initiated a massive
reforestation
project in the Kyrenia Range in the hope of attracting
more
rainfall into this region. The success of all of these
projects
depended ultimately, however, on the level of rainfall,
which
declined during much of the 1980s.
Data as of January 1991
|
