North Cyprus Water Supply and Vegetation

North Cyprus Water Supply and Vegetation

Water is more plentiful on the North Cyprus Kyrenia range than on the southern. The Hilarion limestone, being cut by numerous fractures, absorbs all the rain which falls on it, and this re-emerges as springs, some perennial; for example those at Bellapais (Turkish, Beylerbeyi), Kythrea (Turkish, Degirmenlik), and the Kephalovrysos and others at Lapithos (Turkish, Lapta), all on the north slope. The Kythrea spring is particularly important since it is the only perennial spring to be located on the southern slope of the mountains, so it has always formed an oasis in a bare landscape, with settlement concentrated down ks valley. Much of the Mesaoria lowlands lie in a rain-shadow because the rain-bearing clouds moving south from Turkey will strike the Kyrenia range first. The two main rivers of the central plain are the Pedheios (known in Ottoman times as Kanlidere or river of blood, on account of the many battles which have taken place on its banks), flowing east to Salamis bay and, flowing west to Morphou bay, the Ovgos. (The Turkish name for this water is Guzelyurt Deresi, Morphou being known as Guzelyurt, or beautiful homeland.) The term 'river' is misleading, for in Cyprus they are dry for three quarters of the year. Though one of the Ovgos tributaries does rise in the north, the remainder rise in the Troodos mountains. Water courses in North Cyprus have a very steep path down the mountains; a torrent in winter carves itself deep gullies as it goes, then it will slow down and meander across the plains and it may evaporate before reaching the sea. A very high proportion of all rainfall is lost through evaporation; but there is another factor, seepage. In this zone which is susceptible to constant slight earth-tremors, it is not unusual for hair-line cracks to develop in water pipes, giving rise to minute leaks whose build-up can be very considerable (D Knight, pers comm). In the south the gradual snow-melt off the Troodos mountains helps to stabilise river-flow there to some extent, but at times, particularly in the autumn, a sudden heavy fall of rain can bring down great masses of detritus in the wake of a river, to be deposited on the plains, and this is a source of much fertile silt which has been so beneficial in the Mesaoria. It is very likely that earthquakes have changed conditions on many occasions. According to Stanley Price there are many disused watermills in places which are now arid, they must have had an adequate supply once; while there is historic evidence of springs having dried up after seismic movements. On the other hand at various times, particularly in the Turkish period, people have been able to tap underground water by what are known as chains-of-wells.

While many authorities hold that progressive denudations of the forests must have reduced the rainfall, the climate has probably not changed dramatically in the last 10,000 years. After the most recent Ice Age the peak growth of vegetation was reached about 8,000 years ago; then the famous dense forest covered almost all the island. Even so, authorities are now questioning whether some areas, for example the Mesaoria, were ever the thick jungle which popular accounts have led us to imagine. It has been commented that Strabo's famous reference can equally well apply to a maquis-type of scrub cover, and this is what it rapidly reverts to now if left uncultivated. Besides, farming had been going on for several thousand years before Strabo's time. It is more likely that the famous forests were located in the uplands, as they are to-day. Different geographical areas would have had different tree-cover; oak, juniper, cypress. One feature of the ancient landscape which has disappeared is the marshlands, which would have existed on the fringes of the rivers and low-lying parts like Mourphou (Giizelyurt). It was with the coming of the British administration that these malaria-infested areas were drained, and the elimination of malaria itself is largely to be credited to the work of one Government official working under Sir Ronald Storrs, the Governor of the 1930s.

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