As Greece’s peak tourist season looms, water shortages have forced the authorities on several popular holiday islands to declare a state of emergency.
Even before the hottest days of the year, eight Greek islands have entered into emergency status because of water scarcity in the country. The islands of Poros, Tinos, Alonissos, Astypalea, Leros, Patmos, Symi and Karpathos have been affected, with the situation in Corfu and the Diapontian Islands also reported to be dire. Authorities believe that the combination of a dry winter and a surge in tourism have put stress on the area’s water supply.
Dry Winters, Booming Tourism, and Limited Reserves
Greece’s warm winter and dry summer has exacerbated the situation, particularly as many local islands lack large water reserves.
According to the article, many islands are uninhabited during the off-season, but become crowded with throngs of international tourists during the summer. The comparison between the water consumption of the islands during the low and peak seasons is telling. For instance, in Mykonos, the daily water consumption ranges from between 1,600-2,000 cubic meters during the winter, but surges up to 18,000 cubic meters during the hot days of summer. Similarly, the consumption of water on Santorini increases by over 500 percent, while that of Paros and Karpathos increases by around 344 percent during the peak season.
From Success Story to Cautionary Tale
According to the article, experts think that the situation on Astypalea Island will become a cautionary tale for other holiday islands. The island previously had a water storage facility which had been constructed with great care in the 1990s to store up to 90 percent of the island’s water needs. According to Prof. Emmanouilidis of the Democritus University of Thrace, the dam stored rainwater which would otherwise have gone to waste.
“This year we would have had enough water for a few centimeters, if we had collected it all in a jar,” said Mayor of Astypalea, Nikos Komineas, as quoted in the article. Experts think that the surge in tourism has added to the stress on the local water supply.
According to Prof. Emmanouilidis, the problem is not only due to the increase in tourism, but also the fact that the majority of paying guests stay in luxury hotels which have significantly higher water consumption rates than family-run taverns and guesthouses. For instance, while the average water consumption per tourist staying in a simple accommodation is 450 liters per day, those who stay in five-star hotels can consume up to 1,000 liters per person per day. Large tourist complexes which host hundreds of paying guests can put enormous stress on the local water supplies of small holiday islands.
Short-Term Fixes and Long-Term Needs
The most immediate solution to the water crisis in Greece is the production of desalinated water. The production of freshwater from seawater is an energy-intensive process, but it has proven to be effective in the short-term.
Experts say that while the construction of desalination plants can provide a temporary solution to the water crisis, long-term planning is necessary to ensure that the needs of the population and the visitors to the islands are met.
According to Prof. Emmanouilidis, there is a need for the conservation and storage of water, rather than focusing on methods of creating new sources of freshwater. According to the expert, the emphasis should be on the collection and storage of rainwater, particularly as the water run-off from winter torrential rains in Greece frequently goes to waste.
The Greek government has declared a state of emergency in several islands, which has expedited the authorization process for the construction of new desalination plants, the repair of leaking pipes and the creation of new reservoirs to store freshwater. Experts think that unless there are changes in approach, the situation in Greece can become an even bigger problem in the coming years.
A Call for Cultural and Systemic Change
According to Prof. Emmanouilidis, a cultural shift is necessary to address the growing water scarcity. According to the expert, it is essential to develop methods of calculating the water footprint of tourism in greater detail, while being more vigilant about conservation. The expert likens the situation to recycling, saying that while people have embraced segregating waste, the same level of awareness is not demonstrated when it comes to water conservation.
As Greece enters another year of record-breaking tourist arrivals, the situation with water on the islands is illustrative of the larger environmental crisis that faces many Mediterranean countries. Unless there is a paradigm shift in terms of water storage and conservation, the water crisis on the islands will only worsen in the future.
