Informazioni sulla Diga Kalopanagiotis

Kalopanagiotis dam is nestled in the Nicosia district in the Marathasa valley, one of the most picturesque and historically layered areas of the Troodos mountains. Built in 1967 with a capacity of 0.36 MCM, it is the smallest dam in the national network by storage volume, yet it occupies a setting of remarkable cultural and natural richness. The compact earth-fill structure captures water from the Setrachos River — a fast-moving mountain stream fed by snowmelt and rainfall from the upper Marathasa slopes — and directs it toward supporting the cherry and walnut orchards that the Marathasa valley has been famous for across centuries. Cherry season in Marathasa is a celebrated annual event that draws visitors from across the island, and the small-scale irrigation supported by Kalopanagiotis is integral to maintaining these orchards through the dry early summer months when the cherries ripen. The Marathasa valley sits within the Troodos UNESCO World Heritage buffer zone, recognised for its remarkable collection of Byzantine painted churches — including those of Agios Ioannis Lampadistis monastery directly beside the dam — giving Kalopanagiotis a cultural significance entirely disproportionate to its physical scale. The upper Setrachos catchment receives some of the highest snowfall on the island, and the dam benefits from snowmelt-driven recharge in late winter and early spring, providing a reliable seasonal pulse of water that agricultural users in the valley have depended on for generations. Despite its tiny capacity, Kalopanagiotis holds genuine historical weight as part of the water heritage of this UNESCO-listed mountain region, where managing scarce water resources through community infrastructure has been a defining feature of village life for many centuries.