In Greece, due to abnormal heat and drought, the water level in the main reservoir of the city of Athens has dropped significantly. As a result, for the first time in 30 years, the receding waters have exposed the sunken village of Kallio.
According to Phys.org, the village of Kallio was submerged in the late 1970s. This happened due to the construction of the Mornos Dam, located about 200 kilometers west of Athens.
The construction of the dam meant the creation of a huge artificial lake into which the Mornos and Evinos rivers flow. This lake is now the largest reservoir supplying water to Athens.
In the 1990s, the water level of this lake had already dropped to critically low levels. Then the village of Kallio emerged under water for the first time. The reason was also the drought.
This year, according to the state water operator EYDAP, the water level of the lake has dropped by 30 percent. As a result, destroyed buildings began to appear beneath it, in particular, the ruins of a school and residential buildings had already appeared.
“The level of Lake Mornos has dropped by 40 metres,” says former local resident Yorgos Iosifidis, who had to leave the village with his family in the 1970s. “You can already see the first floor of my father-in-law’s two-storey house – a fairy-tale house. And next door you can see what remains of my cousins’ house.”
According to local authorities, around 80 houses in Kallio were flooded in the 1970s, as well as church and school buildings. They were reportedly sacrificed for the sake of uninterrupted water supply to growing Athens.
