     | Almost exactly a year ago, the amazing water pipeline between northern Cyprus and Turkey opened. Since then the reservoir has been filling, the pipes have been rolling out (literally) across our part of the island, the politicians and councils have been arguing about who was in control of the water..... yes, well..... some things are the same the world over. It's been a bad year for water in Cyprus. A very dry winter last year left the traditional cisterns and reservoirs very very low. In the summer, our village ran out of water and we had to have tankers to the house for July and August, there just wasn't enough to run the house without it. Then there was.... none.... This is unimaginable to someone coming from the UK or from northern Europe or the USA. But, the southern and eastern Med. knows that water is the new oil, a precious, precious commodity to be cossetted, treasured and never wasted. When we arrived in September, the situation in our village was better but not by much. We had water 3 days a week and the pressure was low. Perhaps, I should clarify! The house has constant water supplied from a massive (20 tonne) tank situated under the swimming pool. This tank is attached to the main, and it is this "main supply" that was only on three days a week. House users don't even notice there is any difference between the supply here and the constant pipeline they are used to back in the UK. However, the short supply of water means that our garden tank and the swimming pool top up tank had to be supplied by tanker. Mains water was too precious and in too short a supply to be used for plants or swimming! It wasn't a question of paying for it - our water is all metered. There just wasn't enough water on the island to make this a viable solution. Until..... the new water arrived!!!! Yes, a couple of weeks ago, the unmistakeable signs of a new supply were noted. First, a gang of men arrived and stared at our water cistern (a large tank that supplies our four houses from the village supply). They then announced that new pipework was about to be put in place that would deliver "unimaginable water flow and pressure"!!!! This was a bit alarming. Would this "unimaginable pressure" result in our rather pathetic looking plastic water main rupturing in numerous fountainous leaks???? Would our existing pipework be overwhelmed???? Our anxieties weren't exactly relieved when we saw the workmen deploying said new pipework a few days later. they dragged huge rolls of it up the hill behind their vehicles, allowing the plastic rolls to gyrate and swirl like demented pythons in their wake. Heaven help the hapless hiker coming down from the mountain at that point.... it could have resulted in a nasty one way trip down the ravine!!! However, we are now all connected up and it's wonderful! The pressure is much higher, although hardly likely to rupture anything. We have water on supply to the house 24 x 7 and that is unheard of. Bob has reworked the pipework from the mains outlet so that once more we have mains delivery to our garden watering tank and to the swimming pool topup pool. We haven't had that in place since 2007! The belief is that we will never need tankered water again! It's going to make a huge difference to the garden which will now be able to grow year round instead of going into a sort of heat hibernation through the summer months. We will of course still urge our guests to be cautious with water and not waste it. We ourselves use a washing bowl in the sink and use that water to water pot plants. But.... cliche or not.... water is a miracle.... and we are very thankful that a miracle of engineering has brought it under the sea to our house. |
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