Reconstruction after the floods in Greece will cost more than 3 billion euros: PM April 24,2024

A citizen walks past a car partially buried in mud after storm Elias hit the region, in Agria, central Greece, on September 28, 2023. Angelos TZORTZINIS / AFP

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Reconstruction after the floods in Greece will cost more than 3 billion euros: PM

The cost of rebuilding Greece after last year's destructive floods, which killed 17 people and destroyed essential infrastructure, will exceed three billion euros ($3.2 billion), the prime minister said on Tuesday.

In September, Storm Daniel, a Mediterranean cyclone of unprecedented intensity, unleashed months of rain in just a few hours in Thessaly, Greece's most fertile plain.

Another storm, Storm Elias, followed a few weeks later.

The combination of the two storms caused what Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis later called the worst floods in Greek history.

"The overall rehabilitation of the damage caused by Daniel and Elias will exceed three billion euros," said Mitsotakis during Tuesday's visit to Thessaly.

Repairing the region's roads, rail network and schools alone will cost 1.4 billion euros, he added.

"The road network will be rebuilt better than before," Mitsotakis promised, adding that the repaired rail network will be delivered by the end of 2025.

The flood destroyed roads and bridges and drowned tens of thousands of farm animals.

Some of the plans being considered have attracted criticism from environmental groups, especially the proposals made by HVA, a Dutch company that advises the Greek government.

Last week, Greenpeace, WWF, the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature, and the Hellenic Ornithological Society said that the main focus was on "old-fashioned" dam building, rather than the environmentally friendly river management favored by the EU.

On Thursday, the groups criticized proposals to dredge rivers, arguing that removing obstacles helps floods flow even faster.

There are also fears that the reconstruction will revive decades-old plans to divert the Achelous River in western Greece, a project repeatedly struck down by the country's top administrative court.

In a statement sent to AFP, HVA insisted that its approach was based on science.

The company noted that nature-based solutions have been examined under various EU initiatives. Still, there is "insufficient knowledge" as to whether they apply to projects of the size required in Thessaly.

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