Athens
A village in Greece that disappeared underwater 45 years ago has re-emerged due to the ongoing drought. Lake Mornos in central Greece is drying up, exposing the remains of the buildings that once stood there.
The man-made lake is bearing the brunt of heatwaves, little rain and drought. The lake that supplies water to nearly half the Greek population has dipped to its lowest in the past decades.
The artificial lake submerged the village of Kallio in the 1970s and the Mornos reservoir was brought up in its place. The deliberate act was undertaken to construct a dam that would supply water to Athens. However, people are shocked to see that the village has re-appeared as the water level touches a scary low.
The community that lived there was forced to move upland, but they are now shocked to see the situation. “It’s a nightmarish situation,” Apostolos Gerodimos, the head of the group, told The Guardian.
They were compensated and moved to other urban centres and started a new community.
“The more water levels fall, the more buildings that were submerged back then are re-emerging. If it doesn’t rain this winter the problem is going to get much worse," he added.
“Day by day, the water goes down,” Dimitris Giannopoulos, mayor of the broader Dorida municipality, told CNN. He said that he had not seen anything like this in the past 33 years.
The village of Kallio comprised 80 buildings, including an Evangelist church and primary school. The drought has not yet revealed the church remains, although parts of the stone building where the school was are now becoming visible.
Also Read: Sea creatures that deviated from a species 780,000 years ago found in Antarctica
Kostas Koutsoumbas, the village’s vice-mayor, says the water levels “have fallen 40 metres” this year and it looks like they will continue to fall further.
Greece's weather and global warming
The surface area of the lake has shrunk from around 16.8 square kilometres in August 2022 to just 12.0 square kilometres this year, as per satellite images released by Greece’s National Observatory.
Greece has an arid Mediterranean climate and is at higher risk of being affected by global warming. There was not much snow during the winter, and the summer season witnessed heatwaves and was marred by wildfires. Some of the fires reached the outskirts of Athens.
The mercury hit record levels in June, July and August in Greece. Scientists say climate change has made the weather in the country worse and this now causing the decline of the lake.
Greece witnessed its warmest winter last year and Mount Giona, that towers over the lake, lost its snow because of that, Giannopoulos said. Trees near the lake have turned yellow. “They lack water. This has never happened before,” he said.
(With inputs from agencies)