Faced with a water shortage the Greek islands, according to a Reuters article, in the midst of a tourist season which is expected to record a record number of visitors from abroad.
According to the publication, the largest reservoir on the Greek island of Naxos has dried up while only sea water seeps into the empty irrigation wells damaging the island’s precious potato crop. And he continues: Further south, on the island of Karpathos, authorities have imposed restrictions on the filling of swimming pools, while on the northern island of Thassos, officials are looking for a desalination plant to make seawater drinkable.
Most of Greece has seen little or no rain for months. Now, as the country’s islands prepare to host a record number of tourists, the pressure on water supplies has rarely been greater, officials, farmers and scientists told the agency.
“There was a severe lack of rainfall throughout the Mediterranean and, in particular, in Naxosour surface reservoirs are empty,” said the island’s mayor, Dimitris Lianos.
However, the effects of climate change, including higher temperatures;erratic rainfall and wildfires threaten the future of the country’s biggest economic engine.
This year is particularly difficult. After the warmest winter on record, fires started unusually early, some in areas where there would normally be snow. At least six tourists, including well-known British TV presenter Michael Mosley, died last month as heatwaves swept through the country.
Climate experts fear the worst is yet to come. Andrea Toretti, coordinator of the Copernicus Emergency Management Agency’s European and global drought observatory, said that once the effects of drought are visible, it is too late to act.
Crop trouble
According to the agency, serious problems have also been caused to crops.
The water shortage is acute in Naxos, a mountainous island of 20,000 inhabitants in one of the most popular – and dry – parts of the Aegean. Tens of thousands of tourists flock to its shores every day during the summer.
The island’s two reservoirs hold 220,000 cubic meters (7.7 million cubic feet) of usable water, a third of last year’s level and the equivalent of just a few dozen Olympic swimming pools.
Authorities have secured three portable desalination units which will treat the sea water to make it safe for drinking, and which, as mayor Lianos said, should cover the deficit for houses, hotels and swimming pools.
But farmers will receive none of the treated water and must rely on wells contaminated by sea aquifers. Farmers said this contamination occurs when the wells are empty enough for salt water to seep in.
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