With little water in the dams and the island facing another winter of drought, time for innovative solutions

With expectations for a fourth winter of drought ahead and the island’s dams at very low capacity, the agriculture ministry said this week it is examining using cloud seeding to help alleviate water scarcity.

The former head of the meteorology department has urged authorities to turn to cloud seeding and the government has said it’s considering it – though how seriously, it’s hard to tell. The technology works, but how effectively is up for debate.

Kleanthis Nicolaides has been doing the media circuit over the past week, lending his voice to the chorus of valid concerns over the water shortage. October has come and gone, with hardly any rainfall.

The situation is genuinely dire, with the island’s dams holding just 11 per cent of capacity overall. And whereas the government does acknowledge the gravity of the situation, it insists that Cyprus will not go without water – desalination will save the day.

Nicolaides says the reservoirs situation is even worse than what the official data shows. He estimates that the number is lower than the 11 per cent cited; the measurements are off because of the accumulation of sediment on the floor of the dams.

In his call to action, the former official proposed various ideas to combat the drought. One example: installing infrastructure to minimise evaporation from the dams.

Each day one centimetre of water is l