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| During Storm Byron millions of cubic metres of stormwater flowed unheeded into the Mediterranean |
As the island hosts EU ministers to discuss water resilience, its own infrastructure remains designed for a different era
By Nicolas Netien
On December 9, 2025, Storm Byron delivered what Cyprus desperately needs: rain. Heavy downpours swept across the island, overwhelming drainage systems in Nicosia and Limassol. Streets flooded. Traffic halted. Emergency services responded to calls across both cities. Within 48 hours, the storm had passed, and with it, millions of cubic metres of stormwater flowed untreated into the Mediterranean.
Meanwhile, Cyprus’ reservoirs remain at approximately 12 per cent capacity, down from 26 per cent one year earlier. The government has allocated €142-147 million in its 2026 budget to purchase desalinated water, a 23 per cent increase from 2025. The agriculture ministry describes the situation as a state of water emergency.
This week, on February 5-6, Cyprus hosts the European Union’s Informal Meeting of Environment and Climate Ministers in Nicosia. The stated focus: implementing the European Water Resilience Strategy. President Nikos Christodoulides has told European leaders that “water resilience is not an abstract concept for us; it is a daily reality.”
He is correct, but the reality may be different than intended. Cyprus currently facilitates discussions on coordinated European water management while maintaining no mandatory requirements for rainwater harvesting infrastructure at home. Every new building, road, and parking lot constructed in Cyprus is engineered to drain rainwater away as quickly as possible, directly into storm drains and, ultimately, the sea.
The infrastructure mindset
Yes, Cyprus faces declining rainfall. Annual precipitation has decreased measurably since the early 20th century, and climate projections indicate further reductions ahead. But the island’s towns and cities still receive substantial rainfall during winter months, concentrated in intense bursts rather than gentle, sustained periods. This shift in pattern, from steady rain to sudden storms, makes current urban infrastructure design particularly wasteful.
When 50mm of rain falls in a few hours, as Storm Byron demonstrated, existing drainage systems cannot handle the volume. The water races off impervious surfaces, floods streets, and disappears into the sea before it can be captured or absorbed. A simple calculation illustrates the scale: a 100 square metre hard surface in Nicosia sheds roughly 31,000-35,000 litres annually. In Limassol, where rainfall averages 445mm, the same surface sheds approximately 40,000 litres. Multiply this across thousands of buildings and roads, and the wasted potential becomes staggering.
The new Astromeritis-Evrychou highway offers a clear example. With roughly 275,000 square metres of paved surface and average annual rainfall around 330-340mm, this single road will shed over 80 million litres of runoff each year. Redirected into bioswales and infiltration zones rather than conventional drains, this water could support 20-25 hectares of vegetation, recovering biodiversity and vital ecosystem services using only winter rainfall stored in soil, while recharging aquifers and reducing flood peaks. Instead, it follows the same path as Storm Byron’s deluge: straight to the sea.
Rain runoff from the road flows into an adjacent bioswale
This isn’t deliberate policy failure.
It’s institutional inertia in urban planning and infrastructure development. Engineers, planners and contractors across Cyprus were trained in 20th-century drainage principles: move water away fast. Building codes reinforce this. Training programs teach it. Standard practice assumes it. The entire urban construction sector operates on the premise that rainwater is a nuisance requiring rapid removal, not a resource requiring careful management.
The economic equation
The government’s water budget tells a stark story. The €142-147 million allocated for desalinated water in 2026 represents ongoing public expenditure for a resource that falls from the sky during winter months. Desalination costs roughly €1.00-1.50 per cubic metre to produce, plus distribution costs. It’s energy-intensive with substantial operational expenses.
The 2025 Audit Office report documented nationwide losses of 29 per cent, with Nicosia’s ageing distribution pipes losing as much as 40 per cent of water before it reaches the tap. These inefficiencies contribute to a staggering nationwide loss of over 200 million cubic metres through deteriorating infrastructure.
The equation is simple: manufacture expensive water, lose nearly half through deteriorating infrastructure, then manufacture more expensive water to compensate.
Rainwater harvesting presents a different economic model. The capital cost of collection and storage infrastructure is amortised over decades, with minimal operational costs. That 100 square metre roof collecting 35,000 litres annually represents free water. Urban stormwater management experts estimate tens of millions of cubic metres of rainfall are channelled directly into the sea each year from developed areas. Systematic capture through rooftop cisterns, infiltration basins and permeable surfaces could offset a significant portion of desalination demand at far lower cost.
Studies of similar urban programmes internationally show benefit-cost ratios of 3:1 to 5:1 over twenty years, accounting for avoided desalination expenses, reduced flood damage, increased property values, and energy savings from urban cooling effects. The fiscal logic is straightforward: why manufacture expensive water while engineering city infrastructure to waste free rainfall?
Storm Byron illustrated the other cost. Urban property damage requires repair. Flooded businesses lose inventory and revenue. Emergency services respond to calls. Infrastructure needs maintenance. Insurance coverage for climate-related damage remains limited in Cyprus, leaving substantial costs to fall on property owners and the state.
What modern practice looks like
The solutions Cyprus’ cities and towns need already exist in urban areas facing similar challenges. Water harvesting pioneer Brad Lancaster developed his “Slow, Spread, Sink” methodology in Tucson, Arizona, a climate receiving less rainfall than parts of Cyprus. Rather than racing water away through pipes, urban infrastructure should slow water velocity, spread it across landscapes, and allow it to infiltrate into soil and aquifer. Lancaster reduced his municipal water consumption by 75 per cent using these principles in a desert environment.
Walk down a major avenue in Nicosia on a summer afternoon when the air temperature reaches 35°C and the asphalt radiates heat like an oven, surface temperatures exceeding 65°C. Now imagine the same street with bioswales running parallel to the road, vegetated trenches that capture runoff during winter storms, support drought-adapted trees providing shade year-round, and keep surface temperatures at tolerable levels.
The technology isn’t speculative: cities worldwide have implemented these systems. The question is when Nicosia will follow suit, not whether it’s possible.
Singapore’s Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters Programme has retrofitted urban projects across the city-state, reducing peak runoff by 25-40 per cent while creating public spaces. Berlin uses a “Biotope Area Factor” regulation requiring specific percentages of permeable surfaces in new urban developments. Melbourne mandates that developments meet stormwater quality targets before runoff leaves the site. These aren’t experimental approaches. They’re standard practice in water-conscious cities.
Closer to home, Turkey implemented a nationwide mandate in January 2026 requiring rainwater harvesting systems for all buildings on parcels exceeding 2,000 square metres. Malta has long required traditional cisterns in residential buildings. These countries face similar Mediterranean water stress. The difference is policy: they require what Cyprus merely encourages.
The engineering toolkit is proven. Rooftop collection with cisterns. Permeable pavement instead of solid concrete in parking lots and plazas. Bioswales along roads instead of curb-and-gutter drainage. Rain gardens in commercial areas. Infiltration basins in public spaces. Each approach is engineered with documented performance specifications. Bioretention systems achieve 80-95 per cent removal of pollutants and 80-90 per cent reduction in peak flow rates. The infrastructure works. The question is whether Cyprus will require it in urban planning and building codes.
The EU presidency opportunity
This week’s gathering of EU environment ministers in Nicosia creates useful timing. The conversation Cyprus is facilitating about European water resilience needs to happen domestically as well. Other Mediterranean countries face the same challenge of shifting urban water management from drainage-focused to resource-focused approaches. The technical solutions being discussed in Nicosia conference rooms could be implemented in Nicosia streets.
The opportunity is to align domestic policy with the coordination goals Cyprus is advocating for Europe. Water resilience in cities requires both updated technical approaches and institutional frameworks that enable their implementation. Cyprus has a chance to demonstrate both.
The economic case is documented. Continuing to allocate €142-147 million annually to desalination while engineering urban infrastructure to waste rainfall makes no fiscal sense. Regional neighbours have shown the path. The technical solutions are proven.
The legislative gap
Currently, no comprehensive Water Harvesting Act exists in Cyprus. No such legislation is moving through parliament. The 2025 Green Construction Directive offers developers a 5 per cent building coefficient bonus for installing rainwater systems, an incentive but not a requirement. Planning authorities increasingly request drainage studies for large developments, but compliance standards remain vague.
What’s needed is legislation that establishes clear mandates for urban and infrastructure development. New construction above defined thresholds should demonstrate water capture and infiltration capacity. Road projects should integrate bioswales and permeable surfaces as standard design elements. Public buildings should serve as demonstration sites. Professional training programmes should create a workforce capable of designing and installing these urban systems.
The cost of delay compounds. Every year without mandatory rainwater infrastructure adds thousands more buildings engineered to waste water. Retrofitting is possible but expensive—3-5 times the cost of integrating systems during initial construction. Wait five years, and Cyprus faces either retrofitting tens of thousands of structures at massive expense or accepting permanent infrastructure that exacerbates water scarcity for decades.
Meanwhile, aquifer depletion continues. Coastal aquifers already show saltwater intrusion; without aggressive recharge through infiltration, wells serving agriculture become unusable within a decade. The €147 million desalination budget becomes €200 million, then €250 million, while the infrastructure to reduce that cost sits unbuilt.
The question isn’t whether Cyprus will eventually mandate urban water harvesting. Climate reality will force that decision. The question is whether parliament acts while retrofitting costs are manageable or waits until emergency measures become the only option at triple the expense.
The framework should cut through the bureaucratic fragmentation that currently prevents coordinated action in cities. Clear assignment of responsibility across the Water Development Department, EOAs and municipalities for urban water management. Unified standards for infrastructure projects. Professional certification for contractors and designers working on urban developments. A shift from “encourage” to “require” not as punishment but as practical necessity for sustainable urban planning.
Turkey’s January 2026 nationwide mandate shows this is achievable for a regional neighbour. Malta’s decades of experience with mandatory cisterns demonstrate long-term viability. European cities prove the technical performance. Cyprus doesn’t need to invent solutions for its towns and cities. It needs to adopt what works.
Two barriers stand in the way: outdated thinking and fragmented responsibility. Engineers design according to what they were taught. Contractors build according to standard practice. Meanwhile, the Water Development Department, EOAs and municipalities operate without clear coordination on urban water management.
Changing this requires updated building codes, professional retraining, and unified standards. The economic logic supports change. The technical solutions exist. What’s missing is the legislative framework to make modern practice mandatory rather than optional.
The water falls whether Cyprus chooses to catch it or not. Storm Byron brought millions of litres. The next storm will bring more. The choice is whether that water flows unused into the Mediterranean or whether it fills cisterns, recharges aquifers, irrigates urban vegetation and reduces the need for expensive desalination.
Nicolas Netien is an environmental engineer, specialising in agroecology and permaculture design, based in Cyprus
