Fifteen villages on the island of Santorini have a serious problem with their water supply for the last two days.
Water pressure has dramatically decreased, water comes drop by drop and the flow is very thin, a locals told Open TV at the main news program on Tuesday.
Residents complain that despite this, permits for accommodation and businesses continue to be issued.
Those responsible for the island’s water supply claimed on their part that “because it rained muddy water over the weekend, residents went out and cleaned cars and rooftops with water hoses, resulting in over-consumption” topontiki.gr reported.
The same officials clarified that the problem will continue for one to one and a half days, causing disruption to the residents and businessmen of Santorini who are ready to welcome tourists.
Infrastructure under pressure is nothing new
“The fact that the infrastructure is being pressured is nothing new,” Spyros Filippoy, a restaurant owner, told Open TV.
“The problem started at noon on Monday and we were called upon to absorb it as much as we can. Now there is a small flow, which we do not know how long it will last.”
“The fact that the infrastructure is being pressured is nothing new, the problem has intensified in the last decade.
This raises questions about how new accommodations, beds, businesses, restaurants are licensed when there is not enough for the existing ones,” Filippoy added.
Municipality of Thira on Water Supply
Wednesday noon, May 28, the Municipal Water Supply and Sewerage Company of the Municipality of Thira issued a press release informing that there will be a water supply interruption in the wider area of Oia during the night hours from 24:00 on Wednesday 28/05 to 07:00 on Thursday 29/05 due to the situation created by the excessive consumption observed after the rainfall with African dust until today, resulting in the depletion of reserves in the existing water supply tanks and an emergency failure in the seawater supply system of the Oia desalination plant.
The water supply interruption is carried out in order to ensure a sufficient level in the water supply tanks in order to strengthen the pressure of the networks and restore their smooth operation.
At the same time, however, we must inform the public after articles on the internet and in the press that the overwhelming percentage of the settlements of our islands (Santorini and Thirasia) do not face any water supply problem as is falsely reported, as well as to assure consumers that there is no issue of adequacy during the summer season.
The same phenomenon was observed on other islands of the Cyclades as well as in Heraklion, Crete, without however taking on similar dimensions and rightly so in our opinion.
Santorini has become the target of malicious publications in recent years, culminating in the recent seismic activity in the past period, with the well-known results which are already visible in the current tourist season.
Let us all rise to the occasion and, within a framework of consensus and cooperation, let us protect both the quality of life of citizens and visitors as well as the tourism product, which contributes a very large percentage to both the GDP and the country’s international visibility,” the statement – HERE in Greek – concludes.
Ps the municipality should also accuse the civil Protection, the Seismologists and the Government for the measures they took during the ‘recent seismic activity’, right?