Greece plagued by polluted waterways - by Thrasy Petropoulos who writes for the Athens News
"Led by the high-profile case of Lake Koroneia, almost all the lakes and waterways of northern Greece are suffering from serious pollution, according to research carried out by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Despite the country having an obligation to abide by to the EU's Water Framework directive (2000/60), which requires all water bodies to achieve a "good" status by 2015, a joint study by the university's biology, geology and civil engineering departments has found that a combination of untreated human and industrial waste and illegal farming practices continue to foul the vast majority of waterways of northern Greece. Only one lake, the man-made reservoir Thisavrou, in Drama, comes close to achieving this status, while some (Dipotamou, Mikri Prespa, Volvi, Verogitida, Doirani and, depending on levels of rainfall, Polyfytou) are recorded as "moderate to poor". The rest - including lakes Kastoria, Zazaris, Petron, Vistonida and Kirkini - are registered as "bad".Last month Environment Minister George Souflias announced fines totalling 715,700 euros on 20 companies polluting Koroneia, but a public prosecutor is still looking into why 27 million euros set aside for an urgent clean-up operation of the lake has still not been claimed."
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