Northern Greece is facing a significant water crisis due to prolonged drought conditions exacerbated by successive heatwaves this summer.
Like other areas, it has experienced below-average rainfall for up to three years and drought spots on the map of the region have expanded.
In Greece, the effects include water shortages, dried-up lakes, and even the death of wild horses.
Until recently, Lake Picrolimni was a popular destination in northern Greece for taking mud baths, but this summer it is just cracked earth, dry enough to hold the weight of a car.
”It hasn’t rained at all for two years, so the lake has totally dried up. It used to have a lot of water. People would come to swim,” says local municipal chairman, Costas Partsis.
He says the clay has therapeutic properties for many ailments, but no one came this year.
Nearby, Lake Doirani, which straddles Greece’s northern border with North Macedonia, has receded by 300 metres.
Local officials are pleading with public works to restore the river’s water supply.
They echo calls from experts who argue that major changes in water management are needed to mitigate the damaging effects of climate change.
Water trucked in for olive groves
Konstantinos S. Voudouris, a professor of hydrogeology at the University of Thessaloniki, says outdated water networks are losing too much water.
He says infrastructure improvements must focus on collecting and storing rainwater during the wet season, as well as reusing treated wastewater for agriculture.
Farmers in northern Greece are also facing difficulties.
With just six weeks before harvest, olive farmer Dimitris Papadakis says there is no water left in the ground and he has had to resorted to bring it in by truck from other areas.
“Our boreholes have almost dried up. We now depend on tankers to irrigate our fields,” says Papadakis, who heads an agricultural cooperative in a village on Halkidiki peninsula.
The water crisis has been exacerbated by a booming tourist season.
In Kassandra, the westernmost finger of the peninsula, the year-round population of 17,000 swells to 650,000 in the summer, placing unsustainable pressure on water resources.
