Despite heavy rainfall in the last couple of days, February has been a dry month so far with rain falling below the average, the meteorology department said on Tuesday.

It said, rainfall for February until Tuesday morning was 16.6mm, whereas the average total for the monthly average of 81.6mm.

The data reflects the dry conditions seen so far this winter. Last month deputy director of the Water Development Department Giorgos Kazantzis said that reservoir levels stood at just 26 per cent as of January 31, an extremely low figure due to the second consecutive year of intense drought.

The lack of water has been further exacerbated by the shutdown of the Paphos desalination plant, which is now expected to resume operations in August, and the need to drain the Mavrokolympos reservoir after a leak.

A total of 7.2 million cubic metres of water have flowed into Cyprus’ reservoirs since the hydrological year began on October 1, the same department said at the end of December.