Editing Cyprus (section)

===Water supply===
[[File:Kouris Dam - overflow day 8 April 2012.jpg|thumb|[[Kouris Dam]] overflow in April 2012]]

Cyprus suffers from a chronic shortage of water. The country relies heavily on rain to provide household water, but in the past 30&nbsp;years average yearly precipitation has decreased.<ref name="Meteo">{{cite web |author1=Department of Meteorology |title=The Climate of Cyprus |url=http://www.moa.gov.cy/moa/MS/MS.nsf/DMLcyclimate_en/DMLcyclimate_en?OpenDocument |access-date=8 August 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150614000827/http://www.moa.gov.cy/moa/ms/ms.nsf/DMLcyclimate_en/DMLcyclimate_en?opendocument |archive-date=14 June 2015 |quote=Statistical analysis of rainfall in Cyprus reveals a decreasing trend of rainfall amounts in the last 30-year[s].}}</ref> Between 2001 and 2004, exceptionally heavy annual rainfall pushed water reserves up, with supply exceeding demand, allowing total storage in the island's reservoirs to rise to an all-time high by the start of 2005.
However, since then demand has increased annually – a result of local population growth, foreigners moving to Cyprus and the number of visiting tourists – while supply has fallen as a result of more frequent droughts<ref name="Meteo" /> ([[2006 European heat wave]], [[2018 European heat wave]], [[2019 European heat waves]], [[2022 European heat waves]]).

Dams remain the principal source of water both for domestic and agricultural use; Cyprus has a total of 108 dams and reservoirs, with a total water storage capacity of about {{convert|330000000|m3|-9|abbr=on}}.<ref>[http://www.moa.gov.cy/moa/wdd/Wdd.nsf/All/F1C37F7EC2249715C2256CC50039DDD5?OpenDocument&highlight=108%20dams Dams of Cyprus] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171014105005/http://www.moa.gov.cy/moa/wdd/Wdd.nsf/All/F1C37F7EC2249715C2256CC50039DDD5?OpenDocument&highlight=108%20dams |date=14 October 2017}} Water Development Department, Republic of Cyprus.</ref> Water [[desalination]] plants are gradually being constructed to deal with recent years of prolonged drought.

The Government has invested heavily in the creation of water desalination plants which have supplied almost 50 per cent of domestic water since 2001. Efforts have also been made to raise public awareness of the situation and to encourage domestic water users to take more responsibility for the conservation of this increasingly scarce commodity.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://moa.gov.cy/sectors/water-resources/water-development-department/?lang=en |title=''Water Development Department'' |date=12 February 2024 |access-date=20 February 2024 |archive-date=20 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240220091822/https://moa.gov.cy/sectors/water-resources/water-development-department/?lang=en |url-status=live }}</ref>

Turkey has built a water pipeline under the Mediterranean Sea from [[Anamur]] on its southern coast to the northern coast of Cyprus, to supply Northern Cyprus with potable and irrigation water ''(see [[Northern Cyprus Water Supply Project]])''.