Threat of water woes for region
Poor water management along with wasteful farming practices and a growing tourism sector are stretching the country’s water resources, experts warned over the weekend. In a three-day conference on water management in Greece and other Southeastern European countries that ended yesterday, experts called on the government to implement measures that will help prevent future water problems from arising. «It is not necessary to use so much water,» said Ilias Mariolakos, a professor of geology at Athens University, according to The Associated Press. «It is easier to protect what we have now than… recover what we had,» he added. Anastasia Lazarou-Bakali, representing the Environment Ministry, acknowledged Greece’s water management problems and said the government hoped to ease difficulties by renegotiating agreements with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Bulgaria to increase supplies from cross-border rivers.
