© Christos Theodorides
The main road in Kalavassos where water from the overflowing reservoir is following the original course of the river from before the dam was built
The island's dams have never overflowed so early in the year, the Water Development Department said on Wednesday as two more of the largest reservoirs reached full capacity and water flooded over the dam walls.
Kouris and Evretou reservoirs overflowed between Tuesday and Wednesday while Kalavassos residents woke up to find a river where a road had been and more than 10 homes had to be evacuated.
Τhe Polemidia reservoir overflowed on Wednesday for the second year in the row.
Several smaller reservoirs, mainly in Paphos, have also reached capacity in recent days.
According to senior engineer at the WDD Marios Hadjicostis this is
the first time that water reserves have been so high in January, forcing dam after dam to overflow. This is down to a combination of factors: the heavy rainfall this year, but also the existing high water levels at the start of the rainy season in October.
"Usually the dams overflow around March or April but this year because of the high water reserves due to last year's rainfall we had overflows in January," Hadjicostis told the Cyprus News Agency.
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