Lake wins new lease on life
Less than 10 months after Lake Langadas in central Macedonia dried up after years of overexploitation of its waters, the lake has revived following the winter’s heavy rainfall, environmental groups said yesterday. The shallow freshwater lake, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) east of Thessaloniki, has been bereft of marine life since the summer of 1995, when all its remaining fish died. And last August, Langadas – also known as Lake Koroneia – dried up completely. This followed a steady decline over the past 20 years of its water level, exacerbated by the falling water table and excessive siphoning off of lake waters by local farmers and industries. The threat of evaporation had prompted government plans for Langadas’s salvation, which were never implemented. Yesterday, an alliance of environmental groups monitoring the situation said the waters have reached a depth of over 1.5 meters – the highest since 1995. But they urged the government to take specific action to keep Langadas alive. The lake serves as a habitat for several bird species.
