Four years after missing a European Union deadline for meeting quality standards for its lakes, rivers and underwater reserves, Greece has finally created a viable system for monitoring bodies of water, but the pending merger of state bodies threatens to scupper the project from going ahead, according to a report in Kathimerini.
This week, the Government Gazette published a unique bi-ministerial decision, paving the way for the creation of a national network to monitor the quality and size of Greek water reserves with the aim of combating pollution and drought.
The problem is that the two state bodies tasked with running the network -the Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration (IGME) and the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR)- might cease to exist due to the government’s plans to merge and abolish state companies as part of a broader cost-cutting drive.
Andreas Andreadakis, a general secretary at the Environment Ministry, told Kathimerini that 25 million euros in EU funding already had been set aside for the project.
