Renewable desalination projects could solve Greek water scarcity crisis

With fears that affected islands will receive insufficient winter rainfall, aquifers are under pressure to perform well in the coming months.

Transcript

00:00The Greek government wants to turn to desalination to deal with the country's water shortage

00:08crisis. To cover costs for the energy-hungry desalination units, renewable energy sources

00:14are proposed. The planned 50 million euro project was discussed during the Small Islands

00:19Conference on the Greek island of Milos.

00:21There is a plan from the General Secretary of the Aegean and Island Policy, mainly for

00:29the smaller islands, but also for the larger ones. We have submitted 250 projects, which

00:35are necessary, so that we do not face a water shortage problem next year, in 2025.

00:44The already difficult situation has been aggravated by the climate crisis and by the huge increase

00:50in tourism.

00:51It means that it is time for bold and quick decisions from the political leaders who will

00:57take into account practices that are applied in other countries, but also many promised

01:03innovative technologies that can be used. From the citizens' point of view, it is necessary

01:09to change the culture in the use of water.

01:12Water scarcity is a critical issue for many islands such as Naxos, Mykonos, Kythnos and

01:17Serifos, where the dams have dried up.

01:31An estimated 51% of the population in the Cyclades drinks desalinated water. Scientists,

01:38however, express doubt about its quality.

01:41It is a necessary solution. Unfortunately, we cannot avoid it completely. What we can

01:47do, however, is to supplement the water we use from the dams, or rather to replace it

01:53better with rainwater. It is raining on our islands, even if it is raining less now, but

01:58it is raining. We can collect this rainwater with special regulations and small technical

02:04projects, friendly to the environment of the islands, not gigantic projects. It is an energy

02:09gain, it is an environmental gain, it is a gain for human health. Rainwater is much

02:13better than desalinated water.

02:15The strategic agenda adopted by the European Council for the next five years commits to

02:20strengthening water resilience across the EU, while also investing in abundant cross-border

02:25infrastructure for water.