Lipsyria: EYDAP reservoirs are emptying in Attica – water reserves have halved within 2 years

Day after day, the situation with its reserves is becoming increasingly worrying, which are declining dramatically. The danger bell rings loudly, hears in the name of water shortage, and the numbers capture in the most graphic way that the weather is approaching, water. According to the official data of EYDAP, on Monday 16 September 2024 the total water reserves in Feneno, Marathon, Morno and Material amounted to 659.899,000 cubic water. The alarm for the water reserves of the basin began ringing in the last two years, where unprecedented drought is recorded. Typically, in September 2022, EYDAP’s reservoirs were filled with 1,113,666,000 cubic meters of water, meaning that within two years they were reduced by 50%. Water is lost, rainfall is becoming increasingly rare and reservoirs are empty. Existing stocks are sufficient for about four years in the event of continued drought, according to the EFSD. Planned measures to address the situation are divided into three categories. The short term includes the activation of drilling in Mavrosuvala and backup drilling average of Boeotic Kifissus (75 million m3/year). At the ITH the Prime Minister announced a package of measures to deal with the situation in the medium term, with the main being water supply in the reservoir of Evinos, from Lake Hangers. However, the project has been implemented for some years, while the situation requires more direct treatment, which is also based on changing the use of water by consumers. Unsuccessful campaign “Even though we shout for proper water use, the message unfortunately has not passed. It is necessary to change culture, to start education from schools so that the stimulus can be transferred to households by children,” notes the doctor of hydrology of the University of Western Attica, Elizabeth Feloni. “A corresponding crisis in water reserves, Athens faced in the early 1990s. The measures at the time had achieved a reduction in consumption to about 30%, but there is a difference, that then the basin did not use the waters of Evinos, whose reservoir began operating in early 2000. So today we are not at the same level of risk as then, even though we are talking about an environmental crisis in the amount of water,” Mrs Feloni notes. Significant savings in water resources are expected to be achieved through the consolidation of JHA at regional level. In this context, EYDAP is expected to expand to Corinth, Boeotia and Fthiotida and EYATH to the rest of Thessaloniki and Halkidiki, while there will be a corresponding body for the islands and Crete.