Plan to increase size of Pinios River and Lake Karla

The plan presented on Friday in Larissa by Regional Governor Dimitris Kouretas outlines the need for a new approach to agricultural production in Thessaly, and includes the doubling of Lake Karla's size and its conversion into an irrigation reservoir.

The plan, drawn up by a team of 15 scientists from the University of Thessaly, foresees Lake Karla occupying 60,000 hectares, with a capacity of 270 million cubic meters of water. About 100 million cubic meters per year can be used to irrigate some 230,00 hectares of cotton or other crops with low water requirements.

Regarding flood management, the plan advocates the need to upgrade the system of flood protection embankments, redesign their bridges and ramps, and remove various obstacles in order to give the required space to the Pinios River, since the existing network of drains, rivers and torrents cannot absorb the...