Cyprus water crisis highlights climate change

"It's bad. Very bad," says Vlassis Partassides, head of water management at Cyprus's water development department. "If the drought continues for a fourth year, the consequences will be very severe," he told Reuters.

Partassiades said that since 1972, rainfall had fallen by 20 percent but the runoff -- the inflow into reservoirs -- had declined by 40 percent, because of rising temperatures and the resulting increase in evaporation. "Climate change is clearly evidenced in Cyprus," said Costas Papastavros, head of the island's national climate change unit.

"Climate change is not only about a rise in temperature, but also about extreme weather conditions, and drought is one of them. Desertification is also becoming a serious problem. "It is not just that we do not have water in dams for irrigation, but we are looking at a decline in the productivity of soil, and we have a tremendous problem."