A lake that supplies water for millions of Greeks is shrinking
After a winter of hardly any snow, a summer of punishing heatwaves and months of little rain, Lake Mornos - a huge man-made lake which supplies water for nearly half the Greek population - has dwindled to its lowest level in decades, exposing the muddied remains of a once sunken village. - REUTERS
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00:00This sunken village is re-emerging nearly 45 years after it disappeared underwater.
00:07The lost village of Kaleo was flooded in 1980 to create Lake Mornos, a body of water created
00:14to meet the increasing water needs of the capital, Athens, some 125 miles away.
00:21But after a winter of hardly any snow, a summer of punishing heatwaves and months of little
00:27rain, the lake has dwindled to its lowest level in decades.
00:31The mayor of the broader Dorita municipality, Dimitris Giannopoulos, says the water level
00:37drops day by day.
00:38What worries me very much is that if we don't have rain and snow, the situation will deteriorate.
00:51Today's situation was caused by the lack of snow, minimal rainfall and high temperatures.
00:56If this continues, the problem will get worse.
00:59The lake's surface area has shrunk from around 6.5 square miles in August 2022 to 4.6 square
01:06miles this year, according to satellite images released by Greece's National Observatory.
01:12Water reserves there and at the three other reservoirs supplying Attica, a region of around
01:184 million people, which includes Athens, have dropped enough that Athens' state-run water
01:23company says it has started supplying the region with additional sources of water.
01:29Scientists say extreme weather linked to climate change is now driving the decline of the lake.
01:35Greece's arid Mediterranean climate has made it particularly susceptible to global warming.
01:40It had its warmest winter on record this year, and in August, wildfires reached the outskirts
01:46of Athens.
01:50If it continues like this, the entire village will appear, where the church and our home
01:55was, says this former Kalio resident.