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Cyprus Asprokremmos Dam spills for the first time since 2004
By Edith Jospeh
(Edith is a member of the editorial staff of the Cyprus Chamber)
January 2012 has been one of the wettest months in Cyprus in many years. Just four years ago the island was facing a serious drought with water cuts implemented throughout the island and water was imported from Greece. By March 2008 reservoirs were reportedly just a little over 10% full and that meant that the drought in Cyprus was at a critical stage since, due to climate change, rainfall had significantly decreased over the years and the weather forecasts offered no hope of a good rain season for the year.
Fortunately, since January 2010 Cyprus has been blessed with very good rain seasons and got even more than it bargained for with floods reported in many places across the island during the months of January and February 2010. As a result of the good rains the island has boasted the most beautiful sceneries of blankets of green grass everywhere with flowers and trees blooming amidst these very green pastures. Such beauty has not been seen in Cyprus for too many years. 2012 has begun with another good rain season and, with January just ending, the island has a lot to be happy about since water rationing and drought are things of the past and more rains are yet to come.
On January 27, 2012 the residents of Paphos had a lot to celebrate as the Asprokremmos Dam overflowed for the first time since 2004. Asprokremmos is the second largest dam in Cyprus and it is located 16 km to the east of Paphos. It is built at an altitude of approximately 100 m above sea level.
We decided to take a drive to Paphos on Saturday 28 January to see the dam for ourselves. This would be our first visit to the place so we got the location of the dam off the internet. The day was nice and sunny and making our way to Asprokremmos was fairly easy.
Initially, we arrived at the Asprokremmos Water Works department where we parked our car and walked down a steep road towards the dam. We had arrived at the south of the dam located miles away from the dam wall but the view was absolutely breathtaking. The still waters are literally kept in by embankments covered with blankets of even green grass, which are compliments with many flowers and trees in between. We even managed to see a deserted village in the valley that lies behind the water works department.
After more than an hour of soaking in the sun on the hill tops and taking loads of pictures we decided to try and find our way to the dam wall which we could see in the distance had attracted so many viewers. We headed off towards the highway in the direction of Kouklia and we found the location of the spillway very quickly because it could be seen from the left side of the highway. There were masses of people who had come to see the overflow of the dam water as the last time this had happened was in 2004.
From the top of the dam wall you can see to one side the entire dam and watch as the water flows through the spillway over to the other side of the dam wall, gushing down with such force into the river which then flows through the valley below. The force of the water is so great as it comes gushing out of the mouth of the manmade concrete spillway into the river that it sends off clouds of what looks like smoke.
We made our way up the hill which was on the right side of the spillway, slipping and sliding through mud, feeling the spray of the waterfall onto our faces. But the sound of the water “exploding” off the spillway into the river was just so fascinating we didn’t have time to worry about the mud.
And as we stood on the hill just meters away from the mouth of the spillway, we took videos of the waterfall capturing this wonderful cloud-like curtain of water together with the sound and smoke-like feature it emitted. Unlike the other natural wonders of the world, like Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, where the water flow is like a vertical sheet of water, this waterfall resembled the appearance of volcanic smoke clouds “roaring out of the mouth” of the spillway into the river.
It was so beautiful and the appreciation of this wonderful feature could be seen on the faces of every person that stood there together with us, also capturing each moment on camera and, it was as if, we were all most thankful that finally after years of water shortage beautiful Cyprus had finally been blessed – there is so much water for its inhabitants and the preservation of the island’s natural beauty. May the years ahead continue to bring good rainfall to Cyprus.