Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

According to my always reliable local source, Karsiyaka was yesterday connected to the Turkish water supply and people can expect more or less constant water from now on. However, I was warned that there will probably be some disruption as such pressure levels have never been known before in the Karsiyaka infrastructure and bursts in the mains are expected.

As I have a well and don't use Belediye water it would be interesting to hear from others if the situation has improved.

Water in Karsiyaka has been on 24/7 all this year (down our alley, anyway). We'll all need to update our systems so that we aren't using the electric pump unnecessarily, in fact they may become obsolete.

Has anyone stated anywhere that this water can be used for gardens and pools or is it still household use only?

frontalman

I don't know where in Karsiyaka you live but we are on the mountain side and just below and to one side of the cemetary. My neighbours have been getting water maybe once in 10 days and then only for an hour or two - which is why I have a well.

Frontal man,

Are you suggesting we will be on high pressure mains water?

AS long as the new mains water supply is reliable, there will be no need for the storage tanks and pumps that are the norm now. I would recommend fitting a pressure reducing valve after your meter to protect the pipework in your property from excess pressures.

JBA and Frontalman
We live at the end of the football pitch, across from the Green Palace and we have had water 24/7 every day for at least a year or so - and good pressure too.

If you have ground level water storage plus roof storage,unless you connect a mains pressure pipe to roof tanks,a pump will still be needed. Also to do away with pumped hot water,the cold tank above hot cylinder will need to be raised to a minimum of 1metre above hot outlet.

We are just West of the school. Whatever needs to be done it is obviously better to use mains pressure to circulate house water that expensive and stretched electricity.

Don't know about permanent supply, but pressure has definately increased, we have had at least 9 leaks in our short road (max 100 mtrs) within the last 6 months. Glad we have not been included in the tarmac initiative!

As I understand it, no one is directly connected to the new water supply. The water is pumped to the existing water depots that supply households. I don't think the pressure in households will change because of this. You will be getting water as before but hopefully uninterrupted . The water leaks are resulting from the new system that pumps water to the depots being tested.

wrogers is right - the new water is being pumped into the existing water depots. These used to be opened on a regular cycle so that each area had a depot full of water in its turn. The difference now however is that the depots will never empty and the 'taps' to the various areas will be left permanenetly open.

This WILL result in much higher pressure to individual properties. Previously, when the 'tap' was opened, the water ran down the selected pipes and was immediately drawn off by the various premises on its route - thus pressure was rarely allowed to build up. Now the water 'head' will be well up the mountain and much higher pressure at the user end will be the consequence.

Sooner the better, I'm getting fed up with having to water the garden at 11.30 at night every 4/5 days because that's when its turned ON, alternatively get up at the crack of sparrows in the morning before they turn it OFF.

I don't think that the extra pressure produced by the "higher Head" of gravity fed (not pumped) mains water will require any remedial action by the consumer in most cases.

I totally agree wrogers - it will only effect the line between the meter and the lower storage tank. However, it might effect the ballcock on the lower storage tank - if that can't hold back the pressure then the tank will overflow. It is worth people checking just to make sure because all water after the meter is paid for.

The house should be unaffected as it will still operate under the pressure supplied by the pump.

All good news then

If the "Turkish Water" is being pumped into existing "depots" how will this increase the pressure?

Becker, read message 12 for an explanation.

Whether the depots are full/half (or half empty) the head will remain the same,only if the depot is raised will it increase pressure! With the valves permanently on & supposing all outlets are on at same time,only then will the volume become less at draw off point! Height above outlet determines pressure. As far as I am aware,all dwellings are fed from a ground tank,pumped from there to roof tank & various outlets.

Height above outlet determines pressure but only if there is an unbroken column of water between the two. If the water is flowing into various tanks in various properties below the depot then the pressure never has the chance to build as the column is dissipating all the time - effectively that pressure is shared among many outlets. Only when all household tanks are full, all gardens watered, all pools filled, all cars washed will the pressure at any given outlet be dictated by the highest point of the water.

For most of us, in the summer, this never happens because the depot doesn't hold enough water to satisfy the demand. When the depot is empty the tap is closed and the depot is refilled from the well - then the depot is opened again but for another route. And by the time your route is opened again then all those tanks are nearly empty, the lawns are browning, people can't see out of their windscreens and others are banging their heads when they dive in the pool.

But the Turkish water will flow at a much greater rate than the well can produce, and eventually all demand will be satisfied, the depot will be permanently full and all the routes will be permanently open. Then the height of the depot above the outlet will determine the pressure at the outlet.

Well not all good news, Sally just went in to top up card and she was told the water has gone up to 6TL per tonne. I think it's costing Mr Namsoy 2.3TL per tonne so he is increasing the profit margin by the looks of it. Hope this isn't just an expat special price.

I don't know about head of water or whatever but I do know that in 2007 when we were first put on to mains water we had to replace the crappy pipes that our builder had laid between the meter and the tank. They turned into a sprinkler system very quickly. We replaced with galvanised piping and have had no problems with them since. Re the ballcock, when the pressure is high, high enough to explode a new 30 bar hose, we have to reduce the flow coming in by turning the tap towards off at the meter. As JBA said, the lower tank ballcock cannot cope and the tank overflows leading to loss of water if you don't notice it happening.

Come on Aylin
If the ballcock failure is a recurring problem you can have a float switch and solenoid valve system fitted to take the reliance away from the ballcock.

Aitchie wrote:Come on Aylin
If the ballcock failure is a recurring problem you can have a float switch and solenoid valve system fitted to take the reliance away from the ballcock.

That's an idea!

An alternative might be to fit a pressure reducing valve as suggested by Geoff1131 in post 6 - probably cheaper and simpler, and not reliant on mains electricity, and it protects all of the installation, which saves replacing the feed pipe between meter and storage tank...

Incidentally, partially closing the tap at the meter will only reduce the pressure at the ballcock while water is flowing - once the ballcock closes, then the pressure in the feed pipe will rise to equal that in the incoming mains supply. I think, on balance, that the pressure reducing valve is the best bet if the incoming supply is at very high pressure. Given time, the Belediye or whoever is responsible may cotton on to the fact that they need to reduce the pressure, but who knows how long that might take?

What is a Water Pressure Reducing Valve?

There are two types of water pressure reducing valves, direct acting and pilot operated. Both use globe or angle style bodies. Valves used on smaller piping diameter units are cast from brass; larger piping diameter units are made from ductile iron. Direct acting valves, the more popular type of a water pressure reducing valves, consist of globe-type bodies with a spring-loaded, heat-resistant diaphragm connected to the outlet of the valve that acts upon a spring. This spring holds a pre-set tension on the valve seat installed with a pressure
More info...

http://www.watts.com/pages/learnAbout/r ... p?catId=64

Navek

A good post Navek, that preempts the question

You can of course "splash" out and have both systems therefore safeguarding against ballcock leakage but still using it as a back up if required!

As it has been suggested, turn your stop valve at the meter to perhaps a quarter on or less, that way your tank can flactuate and never actually fill up. It is the least of your problems. We have had shortages of water in Lurucina since the early 60s. And still do as there is no Turkish water reaching Lurucina.

You will still have the over pressure ballcock problem using the quarter turn method!

But surely by experimenting you will find the exact turn where perhaps the tank very rarely fills up full and hance no pressure by going to less turn.

Lurucinali wrote:But surely by experimenting you will find the exact turn where perhaps the tank very rarely fills up full and hance no pressure by going to less turn.

Very 'hit and miss'

If you get it wrong, you could end up with either an empty tank, or a blown ballcock and a flood.

The advantage of a pressure reducing valve is that you will always have a full tank!

Each to his own, I suppose...

I am not a plumber by any stretch of the imagination, but I do know a little about process control. As flow and pressure are inversely related i.e. minimum flow/ maximum pressure (static line). Starting from valve closed and press maximised, as the valve is opened and the flow begins, the pressure in the line will fall according to the flow rate, when the valve is fully open and the flow is at its max, the pressure is at its min. Shutting the meter valve to a quarter turn will reduce the overpressure but not eliminate it, only trial and error will tell you how much you can reduce the flow to ensure the ballcock security, and how many ballcocks do you think it will it take to work that out??

We live in the Esentepe area, just below the village and adjacent to the main coastal road and the pipe for the Turkish water runs along the edge of our complex. The complex has 3 distinct blocks, each having it's own underground communal water tank which feeds the properties surrounding it. We do not have our own water tanks nor are we on mains water but have tankered water brought in every day. The owners on our complex are concerned as to how the mayor of Esentepe will treat our site, will he insist that the whole site be dug up and everyone pay for a smart meter and infrastructure costs or will he just let us pay for the water to be piped to the existing tanks and for those to be metered? If anyone lives on a complex similar to ours, I would be interested to hear what has happened to your water system.

the butler

Hi the butler. Don't take this as fact as things seem to be changing by the week out here. But I went up to Esentepe council to try to find out the details and process of getting the new water supplied. The guy I spoke too was quite adamant that the council would bring the pipe to the different sites and would only do this when they had 80% of owners on each site who were willing to pay. Then the pipework inside the community would be the responsibility of the owners. If there were any problems with the existing pipework then water would only be 'turned on ' when the system was secure. He also said that separate meters would have to be installed to all properties, but since then I have heard that some complexes with ground water storage would be able to have water delivered to the existing holding tanks so I would assume in this case that the existing system could still be used. These could of course be Cyprus rumours. Geoff.

Turning the valve to any position will not reduce pressure,it will reduce volume!

Thank you Geoff1131 for your quick response. I hope the rumour you have heard is correct and that we will be able to keep our present system.
As the mayor has already stated that he will fine anyone using tankered water, surely it means that we will have to sign up to the Turkish water whether we want to or not. When you went to Esentepe to ask these questions, did you manage to find someone who spoke English or do you speak Turkish?


the butler

Please excuse my confusion. "As the mayor has already stated that he will fine anyone using tankered water, surely it means that we will have to sign up to the Turkish water whether we want to or not.." Does that now apply to topping up swimming pools? Is that just for Esentepe?

Hi Hector,

This is what the mayor of Esentepe has said in an interview and it applies only to Esentepe as far as I am aware. He has also said he is going to cap all the wells in the area!! Does he have the authority to do this, I don't know?
I read yesterday, that Esentepe, Catalkoy, Girne, Alsancak, & Lapta municipalities were going to amalgamate and that meetings were taking place now.
Surely if this happens we would all have to pay the same and the same rules apply to all. Or am I missing something?


the butler

I'm afraid I can't see municipalities amalgamating, too many vested interests. They may agree on a like-minded water policy, though even this seems like a non-runner to me.