Water Scarcity Crisis Resurfaces: Sunken Village of Kallio in Mornos Reappears

The level in the Mornos lake, which supplies Athens’ water supply, has receded significantly. In the past two years, the level has receded more than 35 meters and another 18 or so in just the past year, according to residents.

In the village of Kallio Fokida, residents watch the lake sink rapidly every day. At the same time, the abandoned village buildings buried in the water are being revealed, and with them memories from the past.

In 1980 when the Mornu technical lake was completed the people who were there were forced to move to an altitude of 390 meters and create a new settlement. But most of them moved to Athens and other cities in the country. There, in the new settlement of Kallio, about 60 people remain to see and observe every day how their childhood memories, their belongings, everything they left behind, emerge from the waters of the lake.

The 80 houses in the village of Kallio, submerged in the waters of the lake, along with their church and primary school, were “sacrificed” for the water supply of Athens.“For a project that covered the big problem of the capital, but without yielding any benefit for our region to this day” as they say with complaint.

Watch video, the village of Kallio, when it was resurfaced in 2020:

All of them remember the old church of Evagelistria, which has been covered by water and has not yet been revealed. They remember the Primary School that they now see standing in its place, their streets, alleys and cafes.

“When the first houses are revealed, the bells of water scarcity are ringing” notes to APE – MPE the president of the community of Kallio Apostolis Gerodimos.

These bells have been ringing for a long time, not only in the area around Morno, but also in the wider area that affects all the places where Attica gets water, either from Morno, or from Evinos, or even from Kopaida and Yliki.

In Kopaida, a big battle is being fought to reduce the damage as thousands of acres will be left without water, with all that this means for the farmers’ productions. In previous years they had an opportunity to get water from the EVDAP as well. Now this possibility is constantly being removed as the level in the reservoirs of EYDAP that supply Attica is falling and the stored water is constantly decreasing.

But as the village of Kallio, buried in the waters of the lake, continues to be revealed, alarm has been sounded in all directions. The measurements are multiplying, the alarm bell has been sounded.

“We have been experiencing such a situation since 1993” notes the president of the community of Kallio Apostolis Gerodimos and continues saying that “since then 30 years have passed. Of course, the level in the lake was going down. It snowed and rained in the winter and as a consequence the water level was replenished. 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 winter the problem will become much bigger,” he notes, expressing the hope“that we don’t relive what we experienced 30 years ago.”

As the deputy mayor Kostas Koutsoumbas “the level of the lake has dropped 40 meters from the overflow limit” and as he argues “the constant drought is accelerating its fall. Of course, it has not now reached the state it was at its peak in 1993. Compared to 1993 we are at a better level, but if the water scarcity continues and no rain and snow falls in her region it will be a nightmare situation.”

Yannis Laios, who lives in Kallio recalls that “in 1993 the lake had reached its limit and water could not flow freely into the canal and they had to bring in pumps.”But he believes that “the situation now is worse”as he says, “back then, the Euinos did not fall into the lake.” He also argues that as a repository, Mornos Lake” does not have the same capacity as in the past as sediment from the torrents is constantly being driven into the lake” and raises the lake bottom and in this way constantly reduces its capacity.”

All eyes are on the sky as they insist the situation is critical and no one knows what will happen in the next few days. The hope for rain and snow remains alive and well. This will not only bring relief to Attica but also to the producers in the area of Kopaida who are seeing their crops sacrificed.

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