Building on the 10-year legacy of the “Mission Water” program, which implemented 19 technical solutions in Cyprus that save more than 38 million litres of water every year, “Zero Drop – Mission Water” is a new program which aims to promote the use of recycled water and improve the irrigation of green spaces in Cyprus, while saving 5,000,000 litres of water annually.
“Zero Drop – Mission Water” is a water security program aiming to conserve water resources, promote the use of recycled water, and boost green spaces in Cyprus. The project is implented by GWP-Med with exclusive funding by The Coca-Cola Foundation, in collaboration with the Municipality of Aglantzia.
Through the project’s main intervention, focused on the Spyros Kyprianos municipal park, a new water storage and distribution system for treated wastewater is being installed. Municipal trucks will be able to fill up with treated wastewater at the refilll station, and use it to irrigate several parks of Aglantzia. By substituting treated wastewater for freshwater pumped from groundwater resources, the project will save more than 4,000,000 liters of water annually. From this intervention, more than 10,000 beneficiaries from the local community of Aglantzia, Cyprus, are expected to benefit.
The Mayor of Aglantzia, Andreas Konstantinou (middle) surveys the Aglantzia park intervention site.
Improvements to the park’s irrigation network implemented through “Zero Drop – Mission Water”.
Through the second technical intervention, smart water meters will be installed in 25 municipal parks in Aglantzia, providing real-time monitoring of water consumption in those parks that are connected to the water distribution system. This will facilitate municipal water management and putting water saving measures in place, by enabling the municipality to identify excessive water use and locate potential leaks in the irrigation water distribution system, without the need for onsite visits, saving an expected 1 million litres of water per year.
Installation of the water tank for storage and refilling with treated wastewater for green spaces irrigation.
It is estimated that the technical interventions will have been completed by mid-April 2023.
“Zero Drop – Mission Water” builds on the precious 10-year legacy of the “Mission Water” project a long-term collaboration between GWP-Med and Coca-Cola in Cyprus, funded exclusively by the Coca-Cola Foundation. Watch the 10-year anniversary video to find out more about Mission Water’s impact on Cyprus:
Water losses are frequent at Profitis Ilias.
At Profitis Ilias, the “Zero Drop” program focused on the installation of new piping, of much higher technical specifications and safety to damage mechanisms, to replace the old pipes which suffered recurring leaks, causing outages in the distribution network that transports treated wastewater from the municipal treatment plant and channels it for irrigation, gaining an estimated 11,000,000 litres of water per year.
At Voutes, the program completely upgraded the equipment of two major pumping stations, including the installation of inverters, which show important energy savings and reduce the stations’ carbon footprint by 30.000 kg of CO2 per year, as well as avoiding losses of 1,000,000 litres per year.
“Zero Drop” undertook a complete replacement of the old piping network that distributed treated wastewater for irrigation at Profitis Ilias.
In the Communities of Agios Silas, Petrokefalo and Voutes, the program installed solar powered remote-control systems in irrigation water transfer, collection and distribution infrastructure, preventing water losses of 1.5 million litres of water per year.
Finally, in the Community of Kerasia pressure release equipment was installed on the main irrigation water transfer pipe to avoid high-pressure related damages and water losses, saving 1 million litres of water per year.
Overall, by improving the irrigation and water supply system, the new phase of “Zero Drop” program offers benefits to 3,400 farmers as well as the wider local community, with the program’s interventions indirectly benefiting approximately 100,000 residents of Heraklion.
Pumping station equipment at Voutes was completely upgraded, including the installation of inverters for energy efficiency and minimising the carbon footprint.
In an effort to inform and engage the local community with regard to water saving principles, “Zero Drop” program in Crete also entails capacity building activities for the local farmers, in collaboration with the Municipality, with experts sharing experiences on applied innovations that can greatly enhance environmental sustainability in the agricultural sector.
Schoolchildren will have a chance to play the “Zero Drop” ‘snakes and ladders’ water saving game.
“Zero Drop” was launched for the first time in July 2022 on the island of Folegandros, with exclusive funding from The Coca-Cola Foundation, achieving savings of over 10 million liters of water per year and enhancing the water supply of the island by 63%. This year, a new phase of the program was also launched in Nicosia, Cyprus. The program’s technical interventions in the municipality of Aglantzia have the capacity to save an estimated 3,000,000 liters of water annually. While over the last 17 years, more than 100 water protection, conservation and water supply projects have been implemented in 35 Greek islands and cities by GWP-Med with funding from The Coca-Cola Foundation, benefiting more than 280,000 citizens and saving 2 billion liters of water annually.