Sunken village reemerges in Greece as drought dries up lake

Some new homes might soon be popping up on Greece’s version of Rightmove soon – but they might be a tad muddy.

Record-breaking temperatures and a dragging drought in the country have exposed a sunken village in Athens’ main reservoir.

Water levels in recent months have dropped by some 30%, according to Greece’s water operator, EYDAP. Such levels are basically ‘apocalyptic’, as one Greek environmental group put it.

In the 1980s, the village of Kallio was ‘sacrificed’ in order to create a reservoir, with around 80 homes, a church and a local primary school becoming flooded in order to provide a more steady supply of water to the Greek capital.

But as Greece continues to battle with extraordinary heat waves brought about by climate change, more and more of the submerged structures can be seen peeking above the water, acting as a bellweather for dwindling water supplies in the area.

‘When the first houses are revealed, the bells of the water shortage ring,’ said Apostolis Gerodimos, president of the Kallio community.

Gerodimos said the area experienced a similar drought in 1993, which was replenished in the winter once rain started to fall.

‘Since then 30 years have passed,’ he said. ‘Of course, the lake level was dropping. It snowed and rained in the winter, consequently replenishing the amount of water.

‘Now the situation is becoming a nightmare. As the water level drops, buildings from the submerged village will be revealed. If it doesn’t rain in the winter, the problem will become much bigger.’

‘Day by day, the water goes down,’ said Dimitris Giannopoulos, mayor of the broader Dorida municipality, who said nothing similar had been seen for 33 years.

Giannopoulos worries that if there’s not enough rain and snow in the coming winter, the situation will deteriorate even further.

He gestures towards Mount Giona towering over the lake, which used to be snow-capped but saw none last winter, Greece’s warmest on record. On the lake’s receding rim, trees have taken on a yellowish hue.

Greece’s arid Mediterranean climate has made it particularly susceptible to the effects of global warming, which has worsened summer wildfires including blazes that reached the outskirts of Athens last month. Scientists say extreme weather linked to climate change is now driving the decline of the lake.

Wells in the area are drying up and surrounding villages, which do not take water from the lake, suffered water cuts this summer, he said. A local firefighter chief said the risk of wildfires loomed as the forests became drier.

Former residents of Kallio were surprised to see the village again, but saddened at its state.

The lake’s surface area has shrunk from around 16.8 square km in August 2022 to just 12.0 square km this year, according to satellite images released by Greece’s National Observatory.

Water reserves there and at the three other reservoirs supplying Attica, the region which includes the 5 million residents of Athens, had dropped to 700 million cubic metres in August down from 1.2 billion cubic metres in 2022, the environment ministry said.

The state-run Athens water company EYDAP had begun supplying the network with additional sources of water, it said.

But in the meantime, residents are praying for a wet winter and pray the houses head back where they belong.

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