A cluster of 30 shacks on stilts serving as temporary refuge for mussel farmers and fishermen on the bay of Thessaloniki will be supplied with electricity and running water.
The wood huts were set up in 2000 with joint EU-Greek funding to allow local mussel farmers and fishermen to tie their boats under the houses and store their equipment and fishnets inside. Some fishermen have transformed the upper floors into makeshift living rooms with couches, portable cookers and even curtains on the windows.
The uninsulated structures sit in two rows on the delta of the Axios River that flows into the bay. Distributed to 120 mussel farmers and fishermen in 2000 and have become very popular over time, with each hut being used by four professionals who pay 600 euros per annum for their use to the Delta municipality.
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Each hut is shared by four fishermen. Axios President Vangelis Koutroutsios states that the fishermen initially did not want to share their huts as they had their own self-made shacks. “Now, though, with high unemployment, a lot of young men flock to the profession and want their own space as well,” he said.
Electricity metres will be installed in the huts in the next three months, and the area surrounding the huts will be used for tourism with operational toilets.
