A draft law of the Ministry of Environment was discussed and approved yesterday in the Cabinet of Ministers with which the municipal water supply and sewerage companies are merged.
The two-day seminar for the newly elected mayors of the island regions was coming to an end when the mayor of Ampelokipoi-Menemeni and president of the KEDE, Lazaros Kyziroglou apologized to his young colleagues and explained the reason for his absence from a central hotel in Athens, where the event was taking place.
Kyziroglou had gone to the Ministry of Environment where the minister Theo Skylakakis, the Deputy Minister of Interior Theodoros Livanios and the Secretary of State for Waste Management Manolis Grafakos of the eThey said that many municipal companies owe money to the PPC or other electricity providers and suppliers.
The government's proposal to Kyziroglou was the municipalities to receive 250 million euros and accept the merger of 371 municipal water and sewerage operators (124 municipal companies and 147 municipal departments) into a total of 15 companies.
«The details of the plan are not yet decided - e.g. whether the southern Aegean will go along with the north - but we are tired of giving 30 and 40 million each time at the end of the year to municipalities to close ‘holes’ because they do not bill users to cover their costs,» a source who knows the details of the government's plan but was not authorised to comment publicly told Sustainable Cyclades.
As was natural, Kyziroglou's position met the opposition of mayors of island municipalities, such as Dimitris Lianos from Naxos, Kostas Bizas from Paros and a councillor from Syros. One reason is that the government invoked the example of the Solid Waste Management Bodies (FODSAs) to convince elected officials of the need to merge the municipal water and sewerage companies. However the FODSAs in some islands of the Cyclades led to the explosion of municipal fees (up to tripling).
The mayor of Naxos told «Sustainable Cyclades» that «before Kallikrates, the small islands around Naxos paid 400,000 euros a year for solid waste. This cost dropped to 100.00 euros when these islands - Donousa, Herakleia, Koufonissi, Schinoussa - were merged with the Municipality of Naxos. The cost with the FODSA went up again. Specifically, the body, Lianos explains, which has only taken over the management of the landfill without the collection, has set an expensive entry fee per tonne, which sends the cost for the same areas to 426,000 euros
The new desalination plant of Santorini
The picture of municipal water supply and sewerage companies varies from island to island. In Santorini, DEYATH had attempted to raise its tariffs to the cost level in the summer of 2023 - which was refused by the municipal council, resulting in costs not being covered. The same is not the case in Paros, where DEYAP is considered a model company. In Naxos - as in most Cycladic islands - there is not even a municipal company, as the water is managed by part of the municipality.
«For me,» says Lianos, «the crucial issue is the territorial discontinuity of insularity, which requires solutions very close to the consumer-customer. It is not the same as a municipality in Attica or on the mainland».
According to government sources, the merger of the water companies will enable them to more easily install photovoltaic systems on the islands to reduce their electricity bills.
