The dried out Lake Picrolimni is seen from above, near the village of Mikrokampos, northern Greece, August 19. A severe drought in northern Greece, worsened by successive heatwaves and low rainfall, is causing water shortages that are threatening agriculture, drying up lakes, and stressing local communities dependent on tourism. [Giannis Papanikos/AP]
We talk on the phone almost every day. “Dad, has it rained at all?” “No, my child, nothing, not a drop has fallen, even though the meteorologists on the news keep saying rain is on the way.” For months now, the same conversation, on repeat. I’ve forgotten the last time I got a positive answer. It’s been a long time for sure; he’s stopped complaining, stopped worrying about the trees and the fields. “Whatever’s going to happen will happen,” he says now.
Another autumn that seems lost. The earth is thirsty, cracked, the trees stunted. We’ve forgotten the smell of rain, that refreshing feeling, the sound of the first heavy drops. It doesn’t rain anymore… On the Cyclades islands, locals are in despair. On Naxos, they held a procession. On Paros, they look up to the sky and brought out the icon of Panagia Ekatontapyliani in the port of Paroikia, hoping she’ll help, bring rain, breathe life back into the land.
Some light candles for the olive trees, others for the potatoes, others for the fruit trees. Every field has its sorrows; every farmer, their pain. When nature doesn’t help, when people fail to wisely manage water resources or invest in infrastructure, religious faith seems like the last hope.
Scientific measurements, meanwhile, capture the sad reality. Rainfall has decreased by up to 50% in many areas of Greece compared to the decade from 2012 to 2022, with the Aegean islands, the Peloponnese, and Crete in the worst condition. Over the past two months alone, to put things into perspective, Attica received 40% less rain, the Cyclades 90% less, Crete 75%, and Thessaloniki 80% less.
Rains are decreasing, and the water that does fall, often as a downpour, not only fails to replenish the deficit but causes damage and loss in flooding. The future doesn’t look rainy either. Various climate models, both European and American, which can make longer-term forecasts with relative accuracy, warn of greater drought and even less rainfall for Greece.
“Dad, has it rained at all?” “No, my child, nothing, not a drop has fallen.”