The Pinios River has turned into a small river in various parts of it, due to the prolonged drought, as a result of the depletion of water resources in the area.

Its average annual flow systematically falls short of the minimum permitted ecological limit, which practically defines the sustainability of the river.

This unfortunate development has already created incalculable damage to agricultural production, with farmers finding themselves in a major quandary, as after the devastating floods they are now also facing drought.

Nikitas Mylopoulos, professor – director of the Laboratory of Hydrology and Analysis of Water Systems, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Thessaly, emphasizes to the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency that the causes of the ecological disaster are well-known and told a thousand times: the absence of organized irrigation networks, the obsolete irrigation methods and – of course – the very structure of the crops, with the main characteristic being the prevalence of water-bearing and chemically preserved species.

The parallel human effects (sandblasting, land reclamation, residential expansions, interventions in the natural bed, etc.) complement but also exacerbate the problem. He makes a special reference to drought episodes in Thessaly, emphasizing:

“In Greece, the increase in the rate of occurrence of similar extreme natural phenomena is also a fact: prolonged periods of drought followed by intense storms, warmer winters alternating with more intense heat waves, more frequent forest fires and floods in a country with already strong signs of ecological degradation , or even destruction. In a recent study by the Laboratory of Hydrology and Analysis of Water Systems, University of Thessaly, it is demonstrated that drought episodes in the Thessaly region will double in the period 2070-2100, will be more severe and lasting and will affect a greater percentage of area for both socio-economic scenarios climate change. Similar are the results for the prediction of flood phenomena. All this in a geographical area with already strong signs of ecological degradation, on the verge of desertification, as a result of the enormous anthropogenic pressure exerted on its natural resources to cover its irrigation activities”.

The results of a relevant study on the water potential of Thessaly prepared by the same, before the floods, in the scientific laboratory, confirm that the negative water balances in the catchment basins for a number of years have led to the depletion, apart from the renewable ones, of a large part of the permanent water reserves.