Water must be managed, experts warn

Farming, industry should curb use

A farmer drives his tractor through a parched field in Veria, northern Greece. Especially low levels of rainfall this year have raised concerns regarding crop irrigation. But there are also fears that farmers are wasting water.

Greece must improve its management of dwindling water resources and curb wasteful farming and industry practices if it is to avoid widespread drought in the near future, scientists warned yesterday.

“Greece is a country with no effective water management plan,” the president of the Hellenic Committee of Hydrogeology, Giorgos Stournaras, told a press conference in Athens yesterday ahead of World Water Day on Thursday.

“As much as 60 percent of water from supply networks is wasted while unsophisticated irrigation practices are putting a drain on resources,” he said.

According to Stournaras, an improved system of water management, the recycling of water used in industry and a curb on water-wasting agricultural practices would go a long way toward solving the problem. Stournaras blamed state environmental authorities for “overlooking the water problem due to the vested interests of (farmers’) unions.”

Reduced rainfall this year will have significant repercussions on Greek land, particularly in regions that rely on underground resources for water supply and irrigation, scientists agreed yesterday. Underground water supplies provide some 80 percent of all the water we use but are the most difficult to replenish, they said.

The agricultural region of Thessaly and the islands of the Aegean – particularly Samos – are expected to be the hardest hit by the lack of rain. In the Peloponnese, rivers and other sources have already dwindled by 40 percent, according to the Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration which predicted that eastern Corinthia would have the greatest problems.

Meanwhile a draft presidential decree, to be enforced by 2010, foresees regional authorities implementing a pricing system for the use of water that would discourage farmers and industrialists from wasteful practices, sources have told Kathimerini. The decree, which will belatedly bring Greece’s practices into line with European Union standards, would also oblige regional authorities to monitor the quality of local water supplies and protect water supplies from pollution.