The Mayor of Kalymnos Mr. Ioannis Mastrokoukos commented on the issue of water shortage in a 26/2/2024 article of kathimerini.gr written by Giorgios Lialios.
Quote from the Mayor of Kalymnos, Yannis Mastrokoukos:
“Our island has the peculiarity of being… ‘neither small nor large’,” notes the mayor of Kalymnos, Yannis Mastrokoukos. “While we are small in size, we have a permanent population of 17,000. This means that we have significant water needs throughout the year. It’s not just tourism, as our own behavior towards water has also changed: in terms of cleanliness, gardens, swimming pools, things that were unimaginable two generations ago when people had learned to live with much less water.” Kalymnos relies on boreholes for its water supply. There is a desalination unit operating in the northern part of the island to meet tourism needs.
He concludes: “The underground reserves are decreasing and we are now forced to turn to desalination as well. There is already a tender in the air, funded by the Ministry of Interior, for the supply of three small desalination units and another one through the South Aegean Region, for a large unit for the city of Kalymnos. Of course, desalination is not a panacea. Ideally, if we could expand the use of RES to cover their needs and collect network leaks, it would be a more sustainable option.”
