Print page

Water Management

There is a major water supply crisis in Cyprus. Rainfall over the last 100 years has been steadily decreasing while demand has been increasing exponentially. In 2008 development overtook tourism as the largest contributor to GDP, but development has come at an enormous cost to natural resources. Most developments include swimming pools, en-suite bathrooms, extensive garden irrigation systems and worst of all, boreholes.

The government has acknowledged that there are upwards of 50,000 un-licenced and un-metered boreholes in use, all of which are effectively stealing water from the community as a whole. As a direct result, the water table is falling dramatically and many long established springs and wells have run dry or become contaminated with sewage or salt water.

In order to manage water consumption, one household in Kouka is following a three stage strategy.

First they have reduced consumption by installing showers and not baths, and are using aerator taps. These simple and low cost measures has enabled them to reduce household water consumption to around 6 cubic metres a month for two adults, or around 100L per person per day. They have designed a predominantly 'dry' garden in which they will grow native trees, shrubs and plants that are found in the local area. These should need minimal watering once they have become established.

Secondly they have installed a waste water treatment system, which takes all waste water from their house (grey and black), and treats it so that it is pure enough to be re-used for irrigation and other general uses, including car washing, connecting to WCs etc.

The type of system selected is the Busse-MF G HKA-4 system. which is suitable for small households of between 1 and 4 people. This system draws waste from a water water/sewage holding tank and purifies it for discharge into a clean water holding tank, from which it is pumped and distributed as required. These systems are supplied and maintained locally by Hydrotech in Limassol.

The Busse system uses a combination of aeration and micro-filtration - a process which cleans waste water to full European standards. It therefore exceeds the standards set by the Cyprus Environmental Services for recycled water used in public spaces.

Cyprus Category Busse
10 BOD 5 (mg/l) <5
10 SS (mg/l) <3
?? COD (mg/l) <20
5 E Coli (100ml) 0
0 Worm Eggs 0
?? Ammonia NH4-N (mg/l) <1

The Busse figures in the table above were obtained by independent analysis of the treated water from the system installed in Kouka.