Greece has announced plans to "urgently" overhaul its water management, as temperatures continue to rise during a week-long heatwave.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Wednesday that his cabinet has discussed plans to make water companies more "viable", noting that reserves in Athens were down 50 percent compared to three years ago.
According to the prime minister's office, there will be additional use of desalination technology and water reuse, adding that Greece globally ranked 19th in terms of drought risk.
The National Observatory of Athens recently warned that – following high temperatures and low rainfall in June – almost all of Greece displayed above-normal drought levels for this time of year.
Temperatures continued to rise on Wednesday in a heatwave that is expected to last until Sunday. Temperatures of between 40C and 44C are expected in the eastern, central, and northern inland regions, as well as on the islands of the eastern Aegean Sea, according to the meteo.gr website.
In Athens, it was 36C by around 1:30pm local time yesterday, with the temperature expected to rise to 42C on Thursday.
To protect visitors and guards, Greek authorities have closed the Acropolis in Athens during the hottest hours of the day, between 1pm and 6pm, until Friday.
'The asphalt is boiling'
The Greek government has also banned outdoor work in several sectors during peak heat to minimise health risks.
"It's inhumane to work in such conditions. The asphalt is boiling," Panagiotis Arvanitidis, a member of the food delivery workers' union in the northern Thessaloniki region, told French news agency AFP.
"The ambient temperature in my home over the past two days has exceeded 30C," said 50-year-old medical saleswoman Anna Spania. "Without air conditioning, survival is impossible."
The highest temperatures so far were recorded on Tuesday at Tragana, central Greece, at just under 45C. Now accustomed to intense summer heatwaves, Greece last year experienced its hottest summer on record.
(with AFP)
