Water restrictions in Larnaka - new schedule

We've been getting used to the water restrictions in Larnaka, imposed since the start of April. We had mains water switched on from about 8am to 8pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and mostly on Sunday mornings too.

So I made a few adjustments - only doing laundry and watering plants on those days, for instance - and the restrictions did make us even more careful than we had been, so as not to waste water. But our cold water tank was more than sufficient for showers, toilet flushing, and even running the dishwasher.

I suppose it couldn't last. Local people are still washing their cars, and hosing down their patios and the streets outside. They can't do these things every day, of course, and some of them have stopped, or at least cut down... but every week I would still see water flooding down the streets from somebody using their hosepipe without a thought to what it would do to the water supply.

Last Sunday, the water did not come on. That didn't worry me too much, since Sunday was always a bonus.

Then yesterday - Monday - in the afternoon, I happened to move the mains water switch and it came on, to my surprise. I thought perhaps it was our bonus instead of Sunday, so I filled up the drinking water bottles we had used, and washed some fruit and veg.

This morning, Tuesday, when we were expecting mains water, nothing happened.

I saw a friend at the Mothers and Toddlers group, where I help once a week, and she said that her schedule had been Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but theirs did not come on on Monday...

Then another friend said she had heard that there were now new restrictions in place: two days with no mains water, then one day with the water on. A three-day cycle rather than a weekly cycle.

So we shall see. If that's the case, then we won't have any water tomorrow, either, but we will on Thursday. I decided I had better water the plants on our front porch since the last time I watered them was Saturday. Instead of using the outside pipe (which is attached to the mains) I went into our guest flat and filled the watering can from the water (from the tank) there.

It's going to be harder adjusting to this new schedule, if that's what it is, particularly if we have water on different days each week. But no doubt we'll get used to it in a couple of months... by which time they'll probably come up with yet another schedule for water.