Greece’s Mornos reservoir used to submerge Kallio. But things have changed due to drought.
There is no better place in Greece to indicate plummeting rainfall levels in the country than the Mornos reservoir. Furthermore, there is no better settlement in Greece to indicate the strength of this year’s drought than Kallio, a village submerged by the artificial lake in the 1970s.
Nearly five decades after the deliberate flooding of Kallio as part of the construction of a dam to ensure a regular supply of resources, people living nearby are looking in disbelief as reserves have retreated to the point that the village can be seen again.
Gerodimos, the head of the 60-strong community forced to move upland last century at the time of the dam’s construction, said: “It’s a nightmarish situation.” The more the reservoir dries up, the more buildings submerged back then are set to re-emerge.
Tourism placing more pressure on climate-stressed resources
If it doesn’t rain later this year, there is a high chance of the already precarious situation going south. Kostas Koutsoumbas, the village’s vice-mayor, thinks the reserves have fallen 40 metres this year alone and are still falling. He says they haven’t seen anything like it since 1993.
On the frontline of the brutal climate emergency, Greece has been hammered by high temperatures exacerbated by years of erratic rainfall. The mercury hit record levels this year. Consequently, shortages of the resource have become a major concern.
Popular islands in the Mediterranean country are especially affected at a time as unprecedented tourist arrivals place ever-greater pressure on climate-stressed resources. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has stressed the need to build more than and protect resources.
