Under new legislation in the works, stinging fines would be slapped on people who waste water, with repeat offenders facing criminal prosecution and possible jail time.

It’s part of a clampdown on water-wasting as the island’s resources are stretched to the limit following another year of drought.

The revised bill, drafted by the agriculture ministry, is now being reviewed in parliamentary committee. MPs have been urged to take the bill to the House plenum for a vote before the summer recess.

The bill designates the district organisations (EOA) or any other local authorities which supply water, as the authorities responsible for checking. But the ministry will retain overall supervision of the implementation of the new legislation – once it’s enacted – as well as issue guidance.

Any individual found to wastefully use a water hose twice within the space of 18 months will be considered a repeat offender. For the first violation, the on-the-spot fine will come to €85, for the second €150.

Where an individual commits a third violation within an 18-month span, he or she will be charged with a criminal offence.

Failure to pay the fine within 15 days will result in an increase in the amount payable; and failure to pay within 45 days will see the violator face criminal prosecution.

Persons authorised to check for water-wasting may enter any premises or immovable property – except private residences – at any time from sunset to sundown.

Anyone preventing authorised officers from carrying out their duties will have committed a criminal offence and be liable to a fine of up to €1,500, a prison sentence of up to six months, or both.

Authorities will examine complaints about water-wasting – filed anonymously or otherwise – and if they deem the complaint credible, will dispatch officers to check.

If officers catch a person in the act, that person will be issued with an on-the-spot fine.

Exempt from the new law are businesses and industrial premises which demonstrably use water for commercial purposes – washing and cleaning.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that over the past five years, only a handful of warnings and fines were issued for water-wasting.

Only the Larnaca EOA issued 80 warnings and 40 fines over the past few months. No other fines were issued during the last five years.

The data was provided to MPs by the Water Development Department. According to the WDD, the dearth of fines was “likely due to the fact that authorities did not avail of adequate staff or the processes for on-the-spot checks”.

The department also said it has allocated €150,000 for this year to a water-saving awareness drive in mass media and social media.

Exacerbating the island’s water shortage have been a series of events, including a fire that took offline a major desalination plant in Paphos last December, and the leakage of water from the Mavrokolympos dam due to corroded pipelines.

Earlier this year, the United Arab Emirates gifted Cyprus thirteen mobile desalination plants to help with the water situation.