The Ayia Marina Chrysochous dam in Paphos overflowed on Saturday morning, the third of the eight dams in the district, following the rain of the recent days.

The overflow “is an event of particular environmental importance for the Paphos district,” deputy mayor of Ayia Marina Chrysochous Patroklos Evangelou said.

At a capacity of 298,000m³, the dam is among the island’s smaller dams and is primarily used for irrigation purposes in the Chrysochous area.

“The repeated overflow of the dam highlights both the variability of weather phenomena and the need for modern water management policies that take into account the impacts of climate change,” Evangelou said.

He attributed the overflow to persisting rainy weather conditions, but also said that proper management of water resources played an important role “in an era of intense climate change.”

“The dam supports the agricultural production of the Chrysochous region, which depends largely on the availability of water,” he said, adding that the dam is supplied with water from the nearby Xeros river.

Evangelou said that the construction of the dam in 1965 was a “significant technical development” for the time, emphasising it had contributed significantly to the retention and proper utilisation of water in an area with intense seasonality in rainfall.

The overflow of the dam follows the recent overflow of two other dams in the region – the Argaka and Pomos dams, which have capacities of 990,000 and 859,000 m³ respectively.

According to the agriculture ministry, recent rainfall has contributed more than 12 million m³ of water to Cyprus’ reservoirs, which have now reached 27 per cent fullness.

Yet, reserves remain low and significantly below those recorded during the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the overall water inflows into Cyprus’ reservoirs are showing signs of improvement compared to last year, with more rain forecast later this week expected to further boost reserves.