Drying lakes leave Greeks desperate. September 14, 2024

Lunar landscape: The dry bed of Lake Koronia in northern Greece (Sakis MITROLIDIS/AFP/AFP)

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Drying lakes leave Greeks desperate.

Vassilis KYRIAKOULIS

Lake Koronia, one of Greece's largest, is shrinking after a prolonged drought and a summer of record temperatures, leaving behind cracked earth, dead fish, and a persistent stench.

Where once fishermen pulled trout and tench to their boats, young men on motorcycles now ride in the dust.

Locals say they can see the 42-square-kilometer stretch of water near Thessaloniki receding day by day - a fate shared by three other important natural lakes in Greece's breadbasket of Central Macedonia.

“The stench from the lake is getting very bad. If we don't get enough snow and rain, the problem will get worse next year,” said local community leader Kostas Hadzivoulgaridis.

“We need (the authorities) to take immediate action to protect the lake,” the 50-year-old told AFP.

Water levels in three other natural lakes in the region - Doirani, Volvi, and Pikrolimni - are also at their lowest in a decade, according to data last month from the Greek Biotope Wetland Center.

In the last two years, rainfall in the region has been “very low” and the temperatures recorded this year were the highest in the last decade, according to Irini Varsami, a local hydrologist.

As well as losing water directly through evaporation, the lake is being drained by the “growing irrigation needs of (farmers in) the surrounding area”, one of the country's most important food-producing plains.

- We hope it rains.

Although the banks look like a lunar landscape devoid of life, flocks of migratory pink flamingos graze in the low waters beyond.

Anthi Vafiadou, regional supervisor for Greece's state environmental protection agency, said it was “too early” to conclude the impact of the drought on the lake's biodiversity.

“We have to see how the winter season evolves. We hope there will be more rain,” she told AFP.

But what is certain, according to the Biotope Wetland Center, is that climate change is putting enormous pressure on the lakes.

According to the National Observatory, Greece has had the warmest winter and summer on record since reliable data began to be collected in 1960.

Greece's Environment Ministry this week unveiled a multi-billion euro plan to increase water supplies and limit rampant water loss due to mismanagement.

- 'It's completely gone' - you

Less than an hour's drive north, there is a bleak vision of what the future may hold.

Pikrolimni, or “Bitter Lake”, is mainland Greece's only salt lake.

But now Pikrolimni is a lake in name only. All that remains are the patterns formed by water that evaporated during the prolonged drought.

The hotels and a mud spa on its edge are abandoned.

“This is the first summer that the lake has been in such a state. There has been no rain, the water has completely disappeared and the lake has dried up,” said Argyris Vergis, an 80-year-old resident.

“This area used to be busy with tourists, but now you can see motorcyclists racing around the lake on the internet. It's tragic,” said the retired banker.

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