PM to Thessaly institutional bodies: The hard part is just beginning

Welcoming the representatives of Thessaly's institutional bodies to the Maximos Mansion on Monday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis began the meeting by referring to the masterplan presented by the Dutch firm HVA on the recovery of Thessaly after the disastrous flooding of 2023, which was presented at the meeting by HVA CEO Miltos Gouzouris.

Pointing out that the masterplan was more than 400 pages long, Mitsotakis described it as "perhaps the first comprehensive effort to manage the problem of Thessaly's water resources, which also touches on a series of important sectors, such as the need for a more comprehensive planning of Thessaly's infrastructure works, the manner in which there will be an overall management of water resources and the repercussions that all this will have on agricultural production and the primary sector."

He said that more than 40 experts from eight different fields had worked on the plan, devoting more than 15,000 hours to examine the affected regions and propose optimal solutions.

"I would like today's meeting to be the first opportunity to present to Thessaly's institutional bodies the conclusions of this study. A study which we must consider in the light of its scientific nature," he added. While the plan was not "gospel", he noted, it gave very "clear directions" and it would be best to agree that the study could act as a road map on which all sides can agree, so there is the best possible cooperation between the government, local authorities and all local bodies involved, for a truly drastic intervention in Thessaly's problems "so we can convert what was a major disaster into an opportunity to fundamentally restructure the way in which we deal with such issues."

Mitsotakis particularly referred to the issue of Thessaly's underground water reserves, noting that "we should not have had to wait for Storm Daniel to realised that Thessaly's water resources were heading toward exhaustion". He stressed that this this did not mean that the cultivation of cotton had to be abandoned "the very next day" with a drastic measures to restructure the region's cultivation, pointing out that the HVA report did not make such a proposal and that it would be "very unfair to all the detailed work that has been done to focus exclusively on this."
At the same time, he added, "we must all assume our responsibilities in the medium and long-term so that we do not find ourselves in a tragic situation some years from now, where the damage done to Thessaly from the depletion of underground water resources is irreversible. On this point, we all have a responsibility to adopt a position with absolute clarity."

Mitsotakis said the discussion will begin with a presentation of the study, while noting that this will be the first of a series of meetings because "the hard part is just beginning."