ATHENS – After a massive storm in September 2023 brought the most rainfall in 32 years, 2024 has seen so little precipitation in Greece that the Mornos Reservoir has dropped so much that a village that had been submerged is being revealed.

The reservoir was created in 1949 by constructing a dam on the Moros River, the lake covering 15.5 square kilometers (6 square miles) which made it the ninth biggest artificial water body in the country and a major supply source.

The project meant that the village of Kallio had to be evacuated and moved to another location on the lake banks and when the water level drops parts of the old village can be seen, ruined walls prominent.

Greece’s drought has become so severe nearby residents said they are witnessing it by measuring the lake’s fall. “It’s a nightmarish situation,” Apostolos Gerodimos, the head of the 60-strong community forced to move upland when the dam was built about 125 miles west of Athens, told the British newspaper The Guardian.

“The more water levels fall, the more buildings that were submerged back then are re-emerging. If it doesn’t rain this winter the problem is going to get much worse,” he said, echoing a fear across the country.

About 80 buildings, including Kallio’s Evangelistra church and primary school, were “sacrificed” when the reservoir was made, the residents who were displaced being compensated for losing their homes under water, having no choice.

Vice-Mayor Kostas Koutsoumbas said it looks like water levels “have fallen 40 meters (131.2 feet)” this year and are dropping. “We haven’t seen anything like it since 1993,” he said. “It’ll be more acute than even then if things don’t improve.”

Greece experienced its hottest June ever, followed by a record heatwave in July, a searing August and hot weather predicted into the autumn – good for tourism but bad for the water supplies that are being used up.

Some islands that are being overwhelmed by tourists, such as Santorini, are dangerously low and are stepping up use of desalination plants that can’t keep pace with the growing numbers in the summer.

In July, before the heat settled in full force, the state water company EYDAP said water levels in the Mornos Reservoir were already 30 percent lower and falling with a lack of rainfall, with none on the horizon.

EYDAP officials told the newspaper they are working on plans for better water management, with 750 million euros ($829.24 million) in projects and aim to tap Lake Yliki, 52 miles (85km) north-west of Athens, in addition to the artificial lake fed by the Mornos and Evinos rivers.

The water company told users, especially in the biggest prefecture of Attica which includes Athens, not to waste water but isn’t capping filling swimming pools or on the country’s seven golf courses,

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who said climate change is the biggest culprit for the weather changes, said more dams are needed across the country to create water supplies as demand is growing and the infrastructure affected.

“We don’t have the luxury to waste water,” he said not despite the worries and evidence there hasn’t been any major curbs set on using water and the government is luring luxury resorts that include swimming pools and perhaps golf courses.

“At a time when we know with certainty we will have less water, we must protect water resources more methodically than we have done so far,” he said, the government however not putting forth any plans to do so.