Pray for Rain

In spite of some of our previous posts rain has been worryingly scarce this year. No rain over the summer is normal but since the arrival of autumn we’ve only seen about three showers.

Generally rainfall on the island has been low in recent years and usage has apparently increased. Warnings have been in place for much of the year that, unless more rain arrived or people reduced their usage, water rationing would be implemented.

That hasn’t happened yet but the situation is now so bad that the Orthodox Church has declared on December 2 we should all pray for rain.

Apparently the Archbishop has said …
“We are sure that if we all pray with deep faith the Almighty will heed our prayers; ‘Ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full’

The Minister for Agriculture was interviewed on R4’s PM programme on Friday. He was quick to explain that the Government had decided to build three more desalination plants. The R4 interviewer was kind enough not to ask about the 2 or 3 year lead time or to point out that such a decision would have been useful some time ago rather than, well, now.

So, the best plan we have then is back to praying for rain eh? Oh, and keeping fingers crossed as well. Maybe if we all arranged to wash our cars on the same day … would that help? Concentrating the power of Sod’s Law and all that?

Anyway, enough frivolity. There just isn’t enough water and, unless it rains soon, it’s going to be unpleasant. From what we’ve heard water rationing would mean that our water supply would be turned on for about four hours a day on three days of the week. Between those times we’d have to make do with the contents of our water tank on the roof. We’d like to think that we’re careful with water but it might be hard to make that last. Apparently some houses have two tanks to get around the problem. Sort of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?

But there’s hope … right now storm clouds are gathering over Aradippou as we type. At least some rain looks likely, today at least. Whether it will be enough to solve the problem remains to be seen.

Just 30 days of water left ……..

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