16 August 2024 , by Nicolas Jarraud | Global Water Partnership Organisation (www.gwp.org)
Hot valley where I knelt down so often
I saw two small white clouds
so close to the Earth.
Murmuring ‘su’ I am the second part of my name
I wished I could flow in this white pebbled stream bed.
I was told that the sea is also ‘su’
but life in the sea is different.
My dreams went to the west of this island
where the water moths were making love.
As a child I knew the colour of their bodies,
now I have nothing but wind left in the palm of my hand.
You were a marshy valley and I knelt down beside you
and in your lap trees grew by themselves.
I was the salt in your face.
Mehmet Kansu, “Ode to Mesarya”
Photo: Nicolas Jarraud
The Venetian Bridge of “Tzelefos” [Picture 1] is one of the most rewarding sights in Cyprus.It stands, timeless, its feet bathing in the cool waters of the Diarizos river, reminding us of the heritage of the island of Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, which however, remains divided to this day. An older name for this bridge, “Vokaros” or Βόκαρος, is derived from an ancient Greek word meaning “to separate”, a metaphor for water in Cyprus: a resource that can divide, or that can be bridged. There is even a traditional Cypriot dance dedicated to water, the “ Choros tis Kouzas ” (Χορός της κούζας), a courtship dance involving a water jug filled at the fountain (the recurring theme of water can also be found in the Cypriot “Kataklysmos” celebrations, located along water fronts, and focussed on water games, a tradition dating back to ancient flood myths such as the Deukalion)
In Euripides’ “Bacchae”, Diarizos is described as making the land fertile without rain, a reference to irrigation. In fact, wherever we look, we find remains of infrastructures built by ancient Cypriots to access these water resources: aqueducts, underground wells (“Laoumia”), qanats etc. But things have changed: water is more scarce (because of Climate Change and increasing extraction), and increasingly polluted. And these ancient solutions were developed before the Green Line divided the island’s water resources.
Photo: Nicolas Jarraud
Photo: www.militaryhistories.co.uk
The Green Line divides not only the two communities, but also the Pedieos River, the longest river on the island. Conversely, the first major confidence-building measure following the conflict was focussed on transboundary water cooperation: the agreement for the common Nicosia sewerage system (1978)
This was done because the city was facing an environmental and public health crisis, which superseded the dynamics of the conflict. As a result, all the approaches and structures used for subsequent peacebuilding efforts were established, including the “Nicosia Master Plan”. This was also an example of “Integrated Water Resource Management” (IWRM): the sewerage system protected drinking water from contamination, and the effluent was usable for agriculture (the new Nicosia Waste Water Treatment Plant can also produce biogas and fertiliser from the waste).
Photo: UNHCR
Photo: Global Water Partnership www.gwp.org
IWRM is an approach championed by the Global Water Partnership (GWP) for decades (SDG 6.5.1), which has been successfully deployed through multi-stakeholder dialogues across a range of transboundary basins, supporting river basin organisations, and transforming water from a source of conflict to an opportunity for cooperation.
An IWRM-centred transboundary approach is sorely needed in Cyprus, because aside from Pedieos and smaller rivers, the Green Line also transects two of the major aquifers on the island. In addition, Cyprus is among the 5 most water-stressed countries in the world, while Climate Change is making this water stress even worse. The island, which already has one of the lowest amount of available freshwater resources per capita in the EU, has already experienced severe droughts (in 2008, there was a need to import freshwater from Greece).
An IWRM-centred transboundary approach is sorely needed in Cyprus, because aside from Pedieos and smaller rivers, the Green Line also transects two of the major aquifers on the island. In addition, Cyprus is among the 5 most water-stressed countries in the world, while Climate Change is making this water stress even worse. The island, which already has one of the lowest amount of available freshwater resources per capita in the EU, has already experienced severe droughts (in 2008, there was a need to import freshwater from Greece).
Technical solutions do exist (water mining, exploiting non-conventional water sources, desalination, recycling grey water etc.), but come at a cost, financial and environmental. Moreover, the two communities have followed different paths towards water security. The Greek Cypriot community relies on a large number of dams and desalination. The Turkish Cypriot community has opted for a freshwater pipeline from Turkey. However, dams can run dry (not to mention the impact on the flow of rivers) while the desalination plants run on fossil fuels, and therefore contribute to climate change, and are costly to operate, with an ecological price to pay (brine). Meanwhile, the water pipeline from Turkey originates in a water-stressed basin, raising concerns about sustainability.
Moreover, none of these solutions will contribute to improving the water balance of the surrounding ecosystems. Indeed, as climate change worsens our water balance, the ecosystems, our life support systems, will be under increased risk of collapse, even if everyone has enough to drink and our crops are well irrigated. So what we need is a paradigm shift to “Nature-Based Solutions” (SDG 6.6.1). These go beyond replenishing depleted water resources, and can take many forms: restoring the natural courses of rivers, planting vegetation to increase water retention, rehabilitation of abandoned mines, restoring freshwater ecosystems. Society, as well as ecosystems, will benefit, because such measures will mitigate risks such as those from droughts and floods.
However, the continuing division of the island discourages an integrated approach to water management, and hinders the necessary multi-stakeholder process. Thus, chronic water problems persist (the dams in the Greek Cypriot community are at 44.8% capacity this year), and are sometimes related to the energy problems on the island (Famagusta suffered a water shortage in May because of a power outage, as did Nicosia during the Mari incident in 2011), to agriculture (on both communities irrigation is the main water use) and to the wider economic situation.
The Global Panel on Water and Peace published “A Matter of Survival’, which highlights the importance of transboundary water cooperation and multi-stakeholder dialogue platforms. So we should welcome the efforts of the bi-communal Technical Committee on Environment, which is already exploring such water-related confidence-building measures. But beyond that, we all need to address this issue together. What form this cooperation should take must be based on a participatory inter-communal dialogue. If needed, GWP and others can help by sharing their experiences gained from transboundary water governance, and from multi- stakeholder dialogues.
In the “choros tis kouzas”, a young man accidently scares a woman that he loves and her jug smashes on the ground. She gets angry, so the man tries to apologise with a rose. After a while she forgives him and they dance together. Perhaps water really does hold the key to forgiveness and reconciliation.
Photo: Nicolas Jarraud
Nicolas Jarraud
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