Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis attended the opening of the water supply project on the eastern side of the Karditsa Regional Unit from Lake Smokovos in the morning, as part of his visit to the region, who spoke of a project that symbolizes the long-term pathologies that must be corrected as they were needed more than twenty years to complete.

In his greeting, the Prime Minister said:

I believe that today has a special significance for Thessaly. Because it symbolizes how this Region so traumatized by the unprecedented natural disaster of “Daniel” can and has the right to finally look to the future with optimism, can stand again on its feet, regroup and build what was destroyed better and more adapted to the modern needs of the times.

The project, which we have the great pleasure to inaugurate today, as you heard from the Mayor and from the First President of the Association, has a long history and perhaps in its own way symbolizes the chronic pathologies of the Public Administration at all levels. It is our duty to correct these pathologies. And why am I saying this?

We often design a project, a large reservoir like that of Lake Smokovos, which we should at the time of designing foresee that it should perform many different roles: to generate electricity, obviously to have anti-flood utility, but at the same time to serve as source for the water supply and irrigation of the area with which it is adjacent.

And yet, it took more than twenty years to be able to complete this very important water supply project for the entire eastern Karditsa basin, which, as you heard, will provide clean and above all quality water to more than 55,000 residents of the wider area.

We will thereby avoid the need to draw water from the aquifer, save energy as we utilize the natural flow of water and of course upgrade and overall upgrade the quality of life in the entire eastern Karditsa basin.

It is, therefore, a very important project and I want to take this opportunity to congratulate those who envisioned it, the first creators of the Water Supply Association, those who fought throughout time to implement it, the services of the Region and those who overcame the many difficulties that these projects always face have, in order to arrive at the pleasant moment to officially inaugurate them.

And of course we are not finished yet, as the irrigation networks must also be completed so that the project, several decades after the filling of the lake, has essentially been fully functionally completed.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have been to Thessaly several times since the unprecedented disaster of “Daniel” and today I am here again on my way to an overseas trip that I have. I met the residents and the representatives of the Municipalities located near Karla Lake, in the new Karla Lake as it was created, unfortunately, on the area of ​​180,000 hectares after the unprecedented flood.

And I had the opportunity to assure them – I separately assure every resident of Thessaly affected by this disaster – that the Greek government will be close to you with all the means at its disposal in order for Thessaly to find its pace again. And every household, every farmer, every rancher can rebuild their lives better than they were before.

And I must tell you that we have succeeded in mobilizing very important resources in this direction, not only for agricultural compensation, which I think is recognized by everyone as being disbursed very quickly and at better prices than we expected, but above all, I want let’s all turn our gaze together to what needs to be done from now on.

And I want to ask – to borrow a phrase used by the Mayor – to put “we” before “I”. And what I mean by this: We will need to make bold interventions to be able to shield Thessaly from similar phenomena that may arise in the future.

The Water Management Organization of Thessaly, which was already approved by the Council of Ministers and will be legislated early next year, is a very important step in this direction.

I think it was a constant request of the regional bodies to be able to manage the waters of Thessaly as a whole through a single body, with the full cooperation of the Region and using the best possible know-how available to us.

I know that many times such initiatives are sometimes met with local resistance, but I would really ask you to put them aside so that we can look at the big picture.

The big picture is that we must, finally, do things differently. To use the best possible know-how at our disposal, to design and implement projects that are really necessary and that the experts will indicate to us within the timetables that we have agreed, so that we can finally have a holistic management of the entire Thessaly watershed and to be able to avoid the worst in the future.

We have a very good cooperation with the newly elected Regional Governor. I want to have the same cooperation with all the municipal lords of the first degree of the wider area of ​​Thessaly. And I am sure that we will shape the wider consensus so that we end up with interventions that will not only be necessary, but will be lifesaving for Thessaly. But they will also be interventions that will allow us to be able to manage the crises that may come, with much greater efficiency than we have done so far.

And because water is life and you here in Thessaly know it much better than anyone else, I want you to know that this initiative has been brought down to my level and I will personally bend over the many challenges that we will need to face, in order to together we can overcome every obstacle that will stand in our way.

The problem will not be dealt with from one moment to the next, because as was said by the Mayor, we have inherited many decades of pathologies which we must overcome.

But we owe it to the future, to the next generations of Thessaly, to solve this problem once and for all. And have no doubt that we will.

Breathing project for the water supply of 42 settlements

The project will supply water to 42 settlements on the eastern side of the P.E. Karditsa, in the Municipality of Sofadon, Palama and Karditsa, from the lake of Smokovos. It includes a transmission and distribution network with a total length of approximately 190 kilometers, with four local lifting pumping stations.

The new reservoir, refinery and other water purification and storage infrastructure have the capacity to treat 16,875 cubic meters of water per day, providing high-quality drinking water to approximately 55,000 residents and visitors, while eliminating current water wells in the area.

At the same time, there will be significant environmental benefits, as the estimated reduction in the energy costs of the local DHWs for the water supply of the settlements served is estimated at 60-65%.