NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus will depend more on desalination plants to meet its water needs as a string of dry winters has reduced amounts in 108 dams to just a quarter of their capacity, the country's agriculture and environment minister said Wednesday.

Minister Maria Panayiotou said that as part of her ministry’s immediate plans to alleviate water shortages, four more mobile desalination plants will begin operating next October, each producing 30,000 cubic meters (1 million cubic feet) of drinkable water daily.

That’s in addition to the five desalination plants the east Mediterranean island nation currently has, each producing 235,000 cubic meters (8.3 million cubic feet) of fresh water daily. One is currently out of action due to an accidental fire.

Panayiotou said over the long term, the government will expand and upgrade all desalination plans to increase daily fresh water production fourfold and build two more, each with a 140,000 cubic meter (5 million cubic feet) daily output.

That is expected to be completed in about a decade and will double fresh water production from the current quantity to fully meet the island’s needs for decades to come, Panayiotou said.

Although some of the desalination plants have been in operation for some decades, Cyprus continues to rely on an extensive dam network with total capacity of 330 million cubic meters (11.6 billion cubic feet).

According to Panayiotou, Cyprus has more dams relative to its population than any other country in Europe. She said climate change has resulted in more frequent dry winters, with the 2023-24 season being the driest in the last half century.

Last year, dams were about 46% full.

The population of the internationally recognized south of Cyprus is a little under 1 million.

Short-term solutions estimated to cost 66.4 million euros ($69.7 million) include drilling four additional boreholes to tap the water table and wide-ranging repairs and upgrading of the island’s water distribution system to minimize losses.

Panayiotou said new technologies will be used to streamline water use for agriculture, while authorities will launch a renewed advertising campaign to remind people to be frugal in their water usage.

“Conserving water is a matter for us all,” Panayiotou said. “We don’t have the luxury to waste water.”

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