Cyprus increasingly depends on desalination: how much water the plants provide and at what cost

According to a report by the Water Development Department (WDD) for mid-2026, the Republic of Cyprus has faced an urgent need to rapidly expand desalination capacity due to increasingly frequent droughts. At present, desalination plants provide 64% to 67% (and during peak periods up to 76%) of all drinking water on the island. Despite the Ministry of Agriculture's ambitious plan to achieve 100% coverage of household needs through desalination by 2050, the large-scale construction expansion of plants is facing strong resistance from hydrology experts and local residents.

Cyprus's current infrastructure includes five permanent desalination plants (Dhekelia, Larnaca, Vasilikos, Limassol, Paphos) and three mobile units with a total capacity of 272,000 cubic meters of water per day. In the near future, a specialized plant in Garillis is expected to start operating to treat underground brackish water, and by 2029 the construction of four more permanent facilities is planned in Ayia Napa, Chrysochous, “New Dhekelia” and eastern Limassol. The quality of the distilled water produced is strictly monitored by the State General Laboratory of the Ministry of Health, undergoing a mandatory remineralization procedure to comply with European Union standards and prevent pipe corrosion.

The main vulnerable points of complete dependence on desalination remain the high cost (€118 million in 2024) and extreme energy intensity: the current plants consume around 187 GWh per year, which accounts for 4.2% of all electricity generated in Cyprus. Moreover, environmentalists warn of catastrophic harm to coastal flora and fauna due to the discharge of concentrated brine, which destroys the unique Posidonia seagrass meadows. Public discontent has already turned into legal precedents — residents of Mazotos successfully challenged plans to build a new mobile plant in court. Independent hydrologists stress that desalination is not a panacea, and the authorities need to change the island's own water-intensive economic model, restricting the uncontrolled construction of private swimming pools and large commercial facilities.