Fournoi study gauges water scarcity and its causes

In 2023, more than 32 million tourists visited Greece, a number that was 17.6% higher compared to 2022. Overtourism is already a reality on many Greek islands, and appears to be largely responsible for making existing water scarcity more severe. Based on a pilot study carried out in Fournoi, a complex of small islands in the eastern Aegean, it appears that they already need more than double the amount of water that they can produce naturally. In fact, demand is expected to double by 2030, a fact that, as scientists who participated in the research told Kathimerini, is attributed directly to the further increase in the number of tourists. The pilot program is expected to soon expand to 10 more islands to determine their water levels and seek solutions.

Dimitris Emmanouloudis, UNESCO chair on conservation and ecotourism of riparian and deltaic ecosystems, and director of the...