The water pricing policy has been at the center of the public debate in the last twenty-four hours, after the strong positions in the parliamentary Committee on Agriculture. The Department of Water Development (WDD) clarifies the landscape around the much-discussed "resource and environment fee", sending a clear message that this public resource has a cost for everyone, without exceptions.

According to the WDD, water is no longer taken for granted and free. From the ordinary farmer to the golf course investor, participation in the cost of conserving the resource is now mandatory and proportionate.

Despite the prevailing impression of preferential treatment, evidence shows that the golf course strategy, which has been in place since 2005, is now moving towards a complete decoupling of dam stocks. By May 2026, the water supply from the dams to them will be permanently terminated.

Two large golf courses in Paphos are in the final stage of independence from the major irrigation project of Paphos, namely the Aspokremmos dam. These are the Aphrodite Hills and Secret Valley fields that are irrigated by the aquifer of Ezousa, while for their water supply they cover their needs by the KYE of the Greater Paphos area through the community of Kouklia.

Already three stadiums are irrigated exclusively with reclaimed water. These are Minthis Hills, which receives reclaimed water from the Aquifer of Ezousa, while the water supply source is the Anadios KYE through the community of Tsada, the Elea Estate where it is irrigated with reused water from sewerage system treatment through private drilling within the Aquifer of Ezousa, while the water supply needs are covered by the Asprokremmos refinery and desalination and Limassol Greens where it is irrigated from reclaimed water from the Limassol Sewerage Council Amathus and for water supply by the EOA of Limassol.

The charge for golf courses is noticeably higher than other uses after the new fees imposed in 2025. With the implementation of the green tax reform, the total charge for those courses that used water from government projects skyrocketed from €0.36 to €0.42/m². The environment and resource fee for these courses quadrupled, rising from €0.02 to €0.08/m². It currently amounts to €0.29 per cubic meter, compared to €0.23 previously, an amount that fully corresponds to an environment and resource fee in the case of drilling. It is noted that for the supply of recycled water produced by tertiary treatment plants, the total amount of €0.29 corresponds to €0.15 for a financial fee and €0.14 cents for an environment and resource fee.

On the contrary, for irrigation of golf courses from surface sources – licensed private dams, the environmental fee was doubled from €0.11 to €0.22 per cubic meter.

The WDD underlines that this fee is not a new invention due to drought, but a 2017 legislation that imposes an equal contribution of all users to the protection of water supplies. Environmental cost is defined as the cost of environmental damage as an economic opportunity cost (loss of prosperity) and resource cost is defined as the opportunity cost of alternative uses of water, due to the reduction of water resources at a rate beyond their natural rate of replenishment.

"The implementation of the legislation must be universal. Cyprus is at risk of European sanctions if it does not apply the pricing policy equally", say circles of the Department.

For comparison and completeness purposes, the fee for water abstraction from boreholes for agricultural and livestock use or aquaculture amounts to €0.01/m³, while the corresponding charge for water supply from Government Water Works amounts to €0.17/m² (€0.15/m² financial fee and €0.02/m² environment and resource fee).

In response to the reactions to bills of thousands of euros, the WDD clarifies that these amounts do not result from high tariffs, but from huge quantities of pumping from underground aquifers. For an average farmer, the burden remains at the lowest possible level.

Regulations in 2017, started implementation in 2020

Based on the Unified Water Management (Rights, Fees or Other Financial Considerations) Regulations of 2017 (KAPA48/2017), the water supply fees from the Government Water Works (KYE) are determined, as well as the fees for the abstraction of water from other sources, including private boreholes, depending on the use. Since then, all water consumers from the Government Systems are charged and pay the Resource and Environment Tax which is included in the water sale price and which, for agricultural or livestock use, amounts to €0.02/cubic meter.

Water users, such as Water Supply Councils, Community Councils, Water Bottlers and Sellers, farmers, livestock breeders and others served by other sources / boreholes, started to be billed with the Resource and Environment Fee, from 2020, after overcoming objective administrative, technical and other difficulties, with the debts also relating to the entire previous period since the implementation of the 2017 Regulation. The Water Development Department proceeded to prioritize and prioritize the uses related to higher Environment and Resource fees, gradually calling on users in various provinces to pay, many of whom have already done so and are doing so to this day.