After months of extreme heat and drought in many parts of Greece, the remains of a small village have been uncovered in the main waters of Athens. For the first time in over 30 years, the ruins of homes and schools have reappeared as water levels continue to recede.
The rest of the village of Kallio is located in an artificial lake fed by the rivers Mornos and Evinos. It was flooded in the late 1970s, when the Mornos dam was built about 124 kilometers west of Athens. According to AFP, Mayor Kallio Apostolis Gerodimos told the Athens New Agency (ANA) that almost 80 houses have been “exploited” to provide water to Athens.
[Related: Historic drought brings eerie objects and seawater to the surface of the Mississippi River.]
The state water agency EYDAP says the water level in the lake is now down to 30 percent.
“The level of Lake Mornos has dropped by 40 meters (131 feet),” Yorgos Iosifidis told AFP. Now 67 years old, Iosifidis was one of the people who left his home after the flood. “You see the first floor that remains of my father-in-law’s two-story house… and next to it you see what remains of my aunt’s house.”
According to Iosifidis, this is the second time Kallio has appeared again. In the 1990s, the city experienced a similar drought.
Although Greece is no stranger to heat waves, the drought is getting worse this year. According to preliminary data from the country’s laboratory, the country saw its coldest winter and the coldest July on record. The issue has been compounded by light rainfall in the region. Authorities have called on the 3.7 million people living in the Attica region around Athens to conserve water. In addition, EYDAP has entered other water bodies near Athens.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Greece must improve its water management, as he spoke about reconstruction projects following last year’s devastating floods in neighboring Thessaly. In September 2023, Storm Daniel dumped about a year’s worth of rain in just a few hours in some areas.
Prime Minister Mitsotakis said, “We don’t have the luxury to waste water… at a time when we are sure that we will have less water, we have to conserve water more than we do now,” Prime Minister Mitsotakis said. said.
About 85 percent of Greece’s water is used for irrigation and Prime Minister Mitsotakis also said the country will build more dams.
In 2023, deep ancient rock art is found for the first time in Brazil for the first time since 2010 due to drought. The petroglyphs contain depictions of animals and other natural objects and are located on the banks of the Rio Negro. The archaeological site known as Ponto das Lajes is located near the confluence of the Rio Negro and Solimões rivers into the Amazon River.
[Related: A new solution proposed for drought-stricken Panama Canal goes around it.]
In 2022, Europe saw its worst drought in at least 500 years, with rivers across the continent seeing less water. Many World War II warships have been found along the Danube River in Europe. Several megalithic stone circles dating back to 5,000 BCE have been uncovered near the Valdecanas Basin in Spain.
A “Hunger Stone” movement swept across Europe that summer, with markers that showed water levels from other summers. Some of these stones have ominous warnings, including the one found on the Elbe. A stone near the town of Děčín in the northern part of the Czech Republic reads “If you see me, cry.”
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