Cyprus is an island that often suffers from droughts. In its history there are periods of time where all of its citizens have abandoned it due to droughts that lasted for years, but not due to insufficiency of water. Cyprus has and always had a lot of water. Hundreds of natural taps exist all over its area. Its undergrounds are generous not only in mineral wealth but also in good quality of water.
One of these taps is found at the village of Mathiatis in the district of Nicosia. This tap is the only one left from the many that existed in the village in olden days. The existence of these waters was the reason that the English conquerors chose the area of Mathiatis to settle their families, their military forces and the administration of Nicosia.
With the departure of the English from Mathiatis, the tap was “bought” by the residents of the village of Lympia that is quite a few kilometres away from Mathiatis and was suffering from insufficiency of water. With the help of pipes, they guided the water towards their village, and from there to the households.
Up until a few years ago, the tap of Mathiatis was the only source of water for this village. With the allotment of the basin, through which the aquifer that gave water to the tap was enriched, it got infected and thus stopped irrigating the residents of Lympia.
Today the water has its sources a few metres south of the old double bridge that leads to the church of Panagia Galaktotrofousa and the cemetery of the community. The water wells through a landscape filled with brambles, and from there, through a small riverbed it is lead at a distance of a kilometre where it joins with the big river of the area, Gialias.
