- · Data Journalists list the long list of flood control projects that have been announced and re-announced but still remain on paper.
- · The cosmogony of the projects promised by K. Mitsotakis and K. Agorastos has become a communication warfare.
By Aris Hadjigeorgiou
The “Daniel” disaster not only swept away human lives, properties, and infrastructure over hundreds of thousands of acres but, for two weeks now, when its waters have not yet been drained, it also revealed the uncompleted projects promised and advertised by the government for three years now, after the “Ianos” storm. From the announcements and headlines that in 2020 were talking about projects worth 400 million, until February 2023 which reached 4.5 billion, the post-disaster account counts completed interventions that do not exceed 70 million euros.
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The Data Journalists journalistic team is recording today the long list of flood control projects that were announced and re-announced but still remain on paper, as those who were called to implement them, both the Region of Thessaly, which found itself in the role of a scapegoat, and government agencies such as the Ministries of Infrastructure and Transport, Interior and Environment-Energy, failed to complete them. Projects that remain under study, under tender, or in a lengthy development for three years despite the fact that they were announced to urgently protect the plain of Thessaly after a disaster and in the context of a government that has the climate crisis at the top of its agenda.
The listing of projects not completed is in the full knowledge of the government with the usual nonpaper tactics. But the conclusions do not at all flatter the efficiency of the state and this is the main reason why government officials have put all the weight of argument on the huge and unprecedented volume of water brought by “Daniel” as a millennial phenomenon. Except that the very same argument had been used after Ianos when it was described as “a flood that occurs every 3,000 years“…
A brief look back at the announcements of the officials, starting with Ianos in September 2020, highlights the masterful way in which the government, in the midst of coronavirus and the first “Petsas list”, used the anxiety of the citizens to its advantage:
– In one of the first announcements after Ianos, on 23/9/2020, the Region of Thessaly says that “the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport has launched a program of urgent works, with a budget of 350 million euros, for the flood protection of the areas near the motorways, implemented with concession contracts”. The amount, however, is not broken down into individual projects. Only EUR 39 million are mentioned, which will be launched “in the near future” by the concessionaire of the Central Motorway (E65), i.e., a company wholly owned by GEK-TERNA. For the fate of these and other projects also awarded to GEK-TERNA see below.
– In 27/9/2020, the then Minister of Interior Takis Theodorikakos stated that 37 million euros have already been disbursed “to support the affected people” and additional funds are expected to be released to “look at the issue of flood protection in many areas of the country as a whole and not piecemeal and in this issue the role of Local and Regional Authorities we want to be decisive”. Three years later, the government blamed the local government for inefficiency and passed an amendment so that disaster recovery projects were all carried out by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport.
– “The Reconstruction Plan following the damages from Storm Ianos in Thessaly cost 400 million euros”, noted in a statement of the Region of Thessaly on 14/1/2021 but the text analyzed that of this amount, the largest part is taken up not the flood control works but the financial aid for affected households and businesses (50 million. ), allowances of 600 euros (9 million euros), farmers (32 million euros), housing assistance (26.4 million euros) and the fourth cycle of Repayable Advance (117.7 million euros).
–In May 2021, the regional governor of Thessaly, Kostas Agorastos, will welcome the President of the Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou in Karditsa. The photos of the event are dominated by a giant screen showing the completed projects reaching 65%. Mr. Agorastos referred to the climate crisis to say that the renewable energy projects and especially the diversion of the Acheloos River must go ahead. He says that dams on the Acheloos and other rivers would prevent disasters like those on the Ιanos as they hold back sediment. Not a word about the small and cheap mountain hydrology projects with small stone dams that used to be done by the (now deforested) Forestry Departments and hold back the flow of water at the start.
– In April 2022, at an event of the Region of Thessaly, Professor Efthimios Lekkas thanked the Regional Governor Kostas Agorastos for the research program he assigned to him and said: “We are dealing with Ιanοs, which is the flood that occurs every 3,000 years in the Thessalian area”. Three research projects worth a total of €254,000 are listed on the Region’s Diavgeia website. When it came to “Daniel” we heard other experts talk about a flood that occurs every 1,000 or even every 16,000 years.
In the three years between “Ianos” and “Daniel”, the government and the Region have announced many different numbers for projects that have been implemented, “launched”, tendered, contracted, or are in progress. The numbers are… staggering with the largest being that of 4.5 billion euros in the “Thessaly 2030” program, while in many projects the object is broken and re-set. However, the completed projects after Ianos do not exceed a total of 70 million euros and the vast majority of them concern the cleaning of streams. In other words, works aimed at removing the sediment that shrinks the riverbed and leads to overflowing.
The following is the long list of projects of the Ministries of Infrastructure and Transport, Environment and Energy, the Region of Thessaly, and Municipalities that have been announced but remain incomplete:
- Flood protection projects on both sides of the Central Greece motorway (E65), in the sections Xiniada – Anavra & Anavra – Trikala with a total budget of 70 million euros. It is still in the permitting phase although the order for execution was given before January and by the decision of the Governmental Committee for the Coordination of Major Infrastructure Projects from December 2019. The allocation of 70 million euros was approved by a decision of then Minister Karamanlis on 22/2/2021 but still did not proceed while the same “package” was included in a newer decision in May 2023, flood protection projects for the village of Komma in Sperheios. The village was flooded in December and residents blamed this on the way a part of the E65 was constructed by the concessionaire Central Road. Small detail, all the works were to be done under a supplementary contract by the concessionaire Central Road, which is a 100% subsidiary of GEK-TERNA. It will be recalled that after Daniel, GEK-TERNA claimed that it did not undertake flood protection works. GEK-TERNA also undertook without a tender and with a discount of only 6 %, 143 million euros of road rehabilitation works that were not 100 % completed. These projects included some flood control works (stream cleaning works with bed adjustment, construction of 75 new culverts for the safe drainage of streams) as the then Minister of Infrastructure and Transport K. Karamanlis told the Parliament (22/7/21).
- In the spring of 2021, the Regional Governor of Thessaly Kostas Agorastos thanked Prime Minister K. Mitsotakis and Minister of Infrastructure K. Karamanlis for approving the construction of a dam on the river Enipeas. The project, which will start in 2021 with a budget of 70 million euros and will ensure flood protection and irrigation of 110,000 acres in Farsala, Almyros, and Domokos, has been given a strong title. Two years later, in February 2023, at the spectacular “Thessaly 2030” event, the Prime Minister promised 570 projects and other interventions worth €4.5 billion. Among them again the Enipeas Dam for which the budget has now risen to 243.1 million euros.
- Restoration and cleaning of streams in the Municipality of Tirnavos with a budget of 1.036.000 euros
- Restoration of streams in the Municipality of Killer with a budget of 1.108.000 euros
- Restoration of streams in the Municipality of Farsala with a budget of EUR 1.100.000
- Cleaning and improvement of streams in the Municipality of Tempi with a budget of EUR 662.300
- Restoration and cleaning of streams in the Municipality of Agia with a budget of EUR 1.114.000
- Flood protection in the Kerasiotis torrent and the S6 collector with supporting warning and prevention actions with a budget of EUR 3.400.000
- Works – supplies for the needs of the road and flood protection network and other installations in the Prefecture of Larissa with a budget of 2.378.980,47
- Completion of stormwater drainage networks for the flood protection of settlements of the Municipality of Tirnavos included in the Zones of Potentially High Flood Risk with a budget of EUR 2.500.000
- Flood protection of riparian areas of Pinios with a budget of 1.800.000 euros
- Cleaning and damage restoration of the Pinios River with a budget of EUR 1.000.000
- Flood protection and damage repair at the station of Abelias with a budget of EUR 2.500.000
- Settlement of the stream of Pedopolis in Agria Volos with a budget of EUR 392 000
- Settlement of Skiathos streams with a budget of EUR 3.835.000
- Flood protection and maintenance of streams in Magnesia-Sporades with a total budget of EUR 4.400.000.
- Cleaning, restoration, and maintenance of streams in the Municipality of Almiros with a total budget of EUR 2.000.000
- Works and supplies for the road and flood protection network of Magnesia and Sporades with a budget of EUR 5.499.444,60
- Flood protection of the Municipality of Rigas Feraios with a budget of EUR 2.480.000
- Damage restoration caused by the severe weather events of January-February 2018 in the works of the rebuilding of Lake Karla (which was in danger of overflowing) with a budget of EUR 2.000.000
- Restoration of flood damage in the prefecture of Trikala, cleaning of the bed of streams and torrents, Pinios and Portaikos rivers with a total budget of EUR 13.400.000
- Works and supplies for the road and flood protection network of the Prefecture of Trikala with a budget of 6.937.568,03 euros
- Ianos damage restoration to the road network and embankments of Trikala Prefecture with a budget of EUR 2.725.280,07
- Settlement of the bed of the torrent Tzourtziotikos in Agia Paraskevi, Municipality of Meteora with a budget of EUR 1.558.227,50
- Forest management of the Toskesi Pyrras sector, involving the Kamnaitikos stream of the Acheloos Municipality of Pylis, with a budget of 450,000 euros.
- Forest management in the area of Nea Pefki, Vathyrremiotis River in the Upper Acheloos River with a budget of EUR 1.420.000
- Cleaning of the bed of the tributaries of the Portaikos River Paliocaritis and the river downstream of the settlements of Agios Prokopios and Kalogiron with a budget of EUR 3.000.000
- Eight rehabilitation projects of road, drainage, and flood protection networks of the Municipalities of Lake Plastira, Sofades, and Palamas with a total budget of EUR 10.000.000
- Flood protection of riparian areas of the river Enipeas, cleaning and damage restoration of Ianos with a total budget of EUR 4.000.000
- Cleaning of the Vouloulina river collector with a budget of EUR 2.000.000
- Rehabilitation of streams and rural roads in various locations in the prefecture of Karditsa with a budget of 4.950.000 euro
- Works and supplies for the needs of the road and flood protection network and other facilities in the Prefecture of Karditsa with a budget of EUR 2.558.489,70
- Restoration of Ianos damage in the deep bed of the Pamisos River and flood protection of riparian areas with a total budget of EUR 3.000.000
- Emergency works for the removal of sediment from the Acheloos and Koumpourgianitikos rivers to avoid flood risks with a budget of EUR 1.880.460
- Flood protection of a Roma settlement in the Municipality of Sofades with a budget of EUR 471.048,39
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