Climate change and the drought "threaten" Athens with water scarcity for the first time in 30 years. The emergency plan aims to avoid this.
Greece has just launched €2.5 billion worth of projects to implement its water management plan and tackle the growing threat of water scarcity.
Environment and Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou announced the investment alongside Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the Athens Water Supply and Sewerage Company's (EYDAP) 100th anniversary event. They stressed that water would remain a public good and maintain its status as some of the highest quality in Europe.
The centrepiece of the plan is a project to partially divert the flow of the Krikeliotis and Karpenisiotis rivers into the Evinos reservoir, which supplies the Greek capital. It is designed to secure Attica's water supply for the next three decades.
Papastavrou warned that climate change is worsening water scarcity at a time when Greece's water availability is near historic lows. The new measures aim to safeguard drinking water for more than half the country's population and bring greater coordination to water management nationwide.
The key river diversion project
The centrepiece of the plan is a partial diversion of the Krikeliotis and Karpenisiotis rivers into the Evinos reservoir. The project is scheduled for completion in the first half of 2029 – a century after the Marathon Dam was finished.
Meanwhile, EYDAP is pursuing short-term measures to immediately bolster Attica's water supply. These include exploiting new wells in Mavrosouvala, Ymittos and the Boeotian Kifisos, which together could provide around 150 million cubic metres of water annually once operational.
Papastavrou said two significant medium-term projects are also in the pipeline if needed. The first involves a water pipeline to link the External Water Supply System with desalination facilities. The second is a new onshore desalination plant with a capacity of up to 87.5 million cubic metres per year.
The government also plans to expand EYDAP and EYATH's geographical remit to include irrigation within their service areas, while streamlining Greece's fragmented water management landscape by consolidating 750 providers.
Mitsotakis: 1990s water crisis 'must not be repeated'
Speaking at EYDAP's centenary event at the Goulandris Natural History Museum, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis warned of the very real danger of water shortages facing Attica.
"Attica faces a very big problem in terms of water supply if no drastic measures are taken. Hope is not a strategy and we have to be prepared for the worst-case scenario."
He added that the partial diversion of the Krikeliotis and Karpenisiotis rivers could transfer more than 200 million cubic metres of water by natural flow, without pumping stations.
"This project will ensure that for the next thirty years Attica will not face a water supply problem", the Greek Prime Minister stressed, recalling "the water supply crisis of the 1990s, which must never be repeated".
