The Pomos dam, with a capacity of 890,000m³, overflowed on Saturday morning following recent heavy rainfall in the region.

This development is in stark contrast to the island’s broader water crisis, as overall dam reserves remain at critically low levels.

The Water Development Department’s Paphos district engineer Harris Kasioulis said the overflow was expected, as the dam had nearly reached full capacity on Friday.

He added that while Pomos is one of Cyprus’ smaller dams, its overflow is particularly significant after a dry year and offers “an optimistic outlook for what is to come.”

The overflow at Pomos dam

The overflowing of Pomos dam closely followed that of Klirou.

“We expected it to overflow last week, but the water flow was reduced. In the last few days, the water has increased fivefold,” community leader Nicos Alexandrakis said on Saturday.

The Klirou dam, built in 2007 on the bed of the Serrachi River, has a capacity of almost two million cubic meters. It is not the first time it has overflowed, having also done so in February 2024, January 2022 and 2019.

However, the general situation across Cyprus remains dire as the WDD said total capacity in dams across the island on Friday stood at 14.1 per cent, a sharp decline on the 26 per cent seen at the same time last year.

Total water volume has fallen from 75.61 billion cubic meters to 41.08 in the same time.