2024-08-28 09:22:02
NOVA SIRATA, Greece (AP) — Six weeks before harvest, Dimitris Papadakis’ olive grove in northern Greece has no groundwater, so farmers are starting a new morning routine.
Accompanied by his teenage son, he trucked water from nearby areas. He used a small generator to connect his vehicle to an irrigation system to save what was left of his thirsty plantation.
“Our wells are almost dry… now we rely on tankers to irrigate our fields,” Papadakis said. Dickey is a peninsula popular with tourists.
This summer, southern Europe has been hit by back-to-back heat waves after three years of below-average rainfall. Areas affected by drought expand on map of the region. In Greece, impacts include water shortages, drying up of lakes and even the death of wild horses.
Groundwater beneath Papadakis’s 270 olive trees is decreasing and becoming brackish, and drought is expected to halve their production.
The peak tourist season makes the water crisis worse.
In Cassandra, at the peninsula’s far west, the annual population of 17,000 rises to 650,000 in the summer, putting unsustainable pressure on water resources.
Mayor Anastasia Halkia said: “After three consecutive winters with almost no rainfall, we have seen a 30 to 40 percent reduction in water supply.”
Haroula Psaropoulou, who owns a house in the coastal town of Nea Potidea, said it was difficult to cope with the frequent water outages, which can last up to five days in hot weather.
“I recycle water from the sink and washing machine and use it for plants,” said Psaropoulou, 60. “I also brought sea water to use in the toilet.”
According to the European Union’s emergency management agency, severe drought is occurring around the Black Sea and extending west to northern Greece.
Along the Evros River, which separates Greece and Turkey, severe drought means sea levels are now higher in the delta. Excess salt is killing wild horses that depend on rivers for water.
“If horses go without water for a week, they will die,” said Nikos Mousounakis, who is leading an initiative to establish drinking water points for horses. “Some people are still in very bad condition but we hope that with continued help they will recover.”
Until recently, Lake Piccolo Limni in northern Greece was a popular destination for mud baths, but this summer it’s just a shallow basin with cracked earth big enough to support the weight of a car.
“It hasn’t rained in two years, so the lake is completely dry,” said local leader Costa Partsis. “I used to have a lot of water. People came to bathe in the mud water. The mud has healing properties for many diseases. No one came this year.
Nearby Lake Doirani straddles northern Greece’s border with North Macedonia. In recent years, the coast has retreated 300 meters (yards). Local authorities are calling for public works to restore water supplies to rivers, echoing calls from experts who say major changes to water management are needed to mitigate the devastating effects of climate change.
Konstantinos S. Vodulis, professor of hydrology at the University of Thessaloniki, said: “We are experiencing a prolonged drought lasting about three years due to reduced rainfall and snowfall due to the climate crisis and poor water management. ” “The solution lies in three keywords: conservation, storage and reuse.”
Vodouris believes that aging water networks leak too much water and that infrastructure improvements should focus on collecting and storing rainwater during the rainy season and reusing treated wastewater for agriculture.
“These droughts are going to be more severe in the future and we have to take steps and plan ahead to minimize their impact, and we have to adapt to this new reality,” Vaudouris said.
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