Greek Islands In Crisis: Water Shortages Threaten Tourist Havens
The Greek Islands, famous for their picturesque towns, rugged landscapes, and sun-soaked beaches, are facing a severe crisis. Many islands are running dangerously low on water, a situation expected to worsen as the tourist season peaks and dry, hot weather continues.
Several islands, including Leros, Sifnos, parts of Crete, and Kefalonia, have declared states of emergency due to water shortages. Years of low rainfall and an unusually hot winter have depleted reservoirs and underground water sources.
Authorities are urgently seeking solutions, such as converting seawater into drinking water, as the islands brace for millions of tourists in the coming weeks.
In Naxos, a mountainous island in the Aegean Sea with long sandy beaches, reservoirs have shrunk dramatically, exposing parched lake beds. The island’s two rain-fed reservoirs now hold around 200,000 cubic meters of water (52.8 million gallons), only a third of last year’s volume.
“The situation is undoubtedly dire,” said Naxos Mayor Dimitris Lianos. “Climate change is responsible for the water shortages we’re experiencing,” he told CNN. However, tourism exacerbates the problem by increasing demand, he added.
Naxos can currently meet its water needs, but Lianos worries about the future as thousands more tourists are expected to flock to the island over the summer.
Water shortages are widespread in Greece due to soaring demand, unsustainable water policies, and climate change. However, the islands are the most vulnerable, according to Nikitas Mylopoulos, a professor specializing in water management at the University of Thessaly. “They lack water resources—shallow aquifers, few rivers or dams—and face a tremendous rise in water demand during summer,” he told CNN.
Extreme weather fueled by climate change adds further stress. Last winter was Greece’s warmest since records began in 1960, almost every month this year has seen lower-than-usual rainfall, and the Mediterranean Sea has reached record-high temperatures.
Since October, rainfall on some islands has been 40% lower than usual, said Kostas Lagouvardos, research director at the National Observatory of Athens. “That’s a significant problem,” he noted.
In Tinos, an island north of Naxos with white-washed cliff-top villages and hundreds of churches, the water supply is also critically low. The island used to rely on wells and underground sources, but these are drying up, said Tinos Mayor Panagiotis Krontiras.
Farmers are also struggling. They can no longer depend on their wells, Krontiras said. The same is true in Naxos, known for its potatoes, where dried-up wells are forcing farmers to seek water elsewhere at higher costs.
On Leros, the water situation is so dire that authorities declared a state of emergency last month. The Greek Navy and defense ministry sent ships carrying water to meet the island’s basic needs. “By the end of July, we hope to be back on track,” said Leros Mayor Timotheos Kottakis. “We are not yet at a point where we need to cancel bookings.”
However, this temporary relief is not a long-term solution. “This is not enough long term,” Kottakis told Greek TV in early July. Some parts of the island could run completely dry, he warned.
As reservoirs shrink and groundwater dwindles, some islands are turning to the ocean for solutions. Desalination units, which convert seawater to freshwater by removing salts and impurities, have become lifelines for many water-stressed Greek islands, despite being expensive and energy-intensive.
Naxos relies on four temporary units to cover the island’s shortfall. Tinos has between five and six desalination units producing around 5,000 cubic meters a day—enough to fill about two Olympic-sized swimming pools. “Our only way to fight this shortage in the coming years is through desalination,” Krontiras told CNN.
But even desalination faces challenges. Kottakis blamed the crisis on Leros on a failure to maintain the island’s two desalination units, which are both in disrepair.
Fears over water are fueling a debate about overtourism on the islands as visitor numbers rise and development booms. Tourism is “unsustainable and zero-planned,” leading to a tremendous rise in water demand, said Mylopoulos.
Krontiras is particularly concerned about the boom in swimming pools on Tinos and other islands, which adds stress to water systems. Given the crisis, “the state may need to reconsider the necessity of swimming pools on the islands,” he said.
The situation is coming to a head as August’s peak tourist season approaches, with water demand at its highest and dry, hot weather expected to continue. “Many other islands will face problems during this period if we don’t take measures,” said Lagouvardos.
Greece is enduring a brutal heatwave, with temperatures exceeding 104 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s the second heatwave of the summer, following June’s record-breaking warmth. Multiple wildfires have raged, and at least six tourists, including British TV presenter and doctor Michael Moseley and an American tourist, have died as high temperatures scorched the Greek islands.
There are no quick fixes to the crisis. In Naxos, authorities are developing a plan to manage water after the temporary desalination units are gone, such as recycling wastewater and tapping into underground sources. “This plan will require funding, state assistance, and possibly loans,” Lianos said. “But it’s work that needs to be done.”
Leros is repairing its desalination units and renting another to boost its supply. In Tinos, plans are underway to build a large desalination plant to “shield our island for the years to come,” Krontiras said. He also advocates for a more centralized water management system to consider everyone’s needs rather than private individuals acting independently.
Water shortages will likely persist, and addressing them will require people to rethink water usage and sharing. “It’s time to view water consumption differently,” Krontiras said. “Everyone needs to understand that water is a precious resource right now.”
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