Picrolimni “disappears”, Doirani dries up, wetlands are lost. The situation in Halkidiki, Chalkidiki in Spanish, is dramatic due to the drought that is plaguing this tourist city in the north of the Greek peninsula.
The north of Greece faces a serious water crisis due to a prolonged droughtexacerbated by successive heat waves and the lack of precipitation in recent years.
A typical example is the lago Picrolimniwhich until recently was a popular destination for mud baths. This summer, it has become a shallow basin with minimal water.
A little further north, the coast of Lake Doirani has receded 300 meters in recent years. The lack of snowfall and rain threatens more and more wetlands in northern Greece, causing irreparable ecological and economic damage. In Nea Silata, Halkidiki, Dimitris Papadakis’s olive grove is suffering from drought. Six weeks before harvest, he and his son haul water from a nearby area to save their harvest.
The groundwater under the Papadakis olive trees is decreasing and becoming brackish, while it is expected that the drought halve your production expected.
But in Halkidiki not only crops are affected. As the area welcomes thousands of tourists, the water supply in homes is increasingly problematic.
According to the European Union Emergency Management Agencysevere drought conditions currently prevail around the Black Sea and extend westwards to northern Greece. Experts recommend acting immediately.
“Firstly, we want the conservation and efficient use of water, avoiding waste in transport networks and other places. Secondly, we need to store water in small dams, reservoirs and reservoirs. Thirdly, we need to reuse the waters wastewater treated with biological treatment plants,” says Konstantinos S. Voudouris, Professor of Hydrogeology of the AUTH.
