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Pauline Read on The future of Cyprus’ water supply
The tender process has been completed for a unique project to transport water from Turkey to north Cyprus using a system of underwater pipelines. The aim is to annually carry 75m cubic meters of water from the Alaköprü Dam in Mersin to Geçitköy Dam near Girne. To do this a pipeline 78km in length has to be constructed, mainly under the sea. The expectation is that 15m cubic meters will be used as tap water and the remaining 60m cubic meters will be used for irrigation.
The project has been in the pipeline 
for more than 11 years and the first stage will be the construction of Alaköprü Dam in Mersin this year. This means that the actual pipeline is a long way from being a reality and there is some doubt as to whether that part of the project would go ahead if the Cyprus Talks resulted in the formation of a United Cyprus Republic.
However, in the south their water problems are far from over even though the drought which has been affecting the them for several years has been alleviated and several dams are now overflowing. Over December, in the south, unrestricted water use has meant increased water usage and although GCs were considering suspending water restrictions, because of the increased amount of rainfall over the past three months, this increased water use appears to show that when people think there is lots of water, they don’t feel the need to economise. This means that restrictions may continue despite there apparently being water in abundance.
According to some environmentalists, in the future water is going to be scarce and may take on the same importance as oil. The north are at least launching a project to try to avoid droughts in the future but the same does not seem to apply in the south.
| The preliminary tender for a project to transport water to northern Cyprus via a system of underwater pipelines from Alaköprü Dam in Mersin’s Anamur district has been completed. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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