In a landscape with two consecutive winters characterized by drought, resulting in almost the whole of Crete suffering from serious water shortage problems, there is a dam that overflowed this year and is proving to be the most successful on the island.
The reason for the River Dam, in Amari, which in the heart of summer has a capacity of 98%, irrigates an area of 30,000 acres and waters a part of the city of Rethymnon with about 5,000 cubic meters of water per day!
These days with the big fire raging in the southern Rethymno, for the second time in two years, «from there the fire planes land and take off and get water to extinguish the fires» says to Cretalive the Director of Hydraulic Works Management of OAK Mr. Evangelos Mamagakis.
The airborne means operating in the area, using their water resources the installation, for the extinguishing of the fire, as the Executives of Fire Brigade in consultation with the Vice-Regional Head of Crete Civil Protection, κ. George Tsapakos , they considered that the Amari River Dam, is the most short - suitable route feedback of means of flight, to cover the business needs of extinguishing
The dam is located at an altitude of 203 metres above sea level and has springs in the lake that constantly recharge it, while water is drained from part of Psiloritis and Kedros, which also constantly recharge its reservoir.
«It is the most successful dam in Crete since even this year it is the only dam that overflowed» says Mr. Mamagakis and explains that has five times the area of Lake Kournas! For all the above reasons «the level is lowering but not so fast» he says.
«Another aspect of the usefulness of the Amari Dam is highlighted. It is the wish of all of us that «it» will not have to be used in the future for such a disastrous reason as the great fire that has affected the area in the last few hours. We would like to thank all the firefighting forces operating under extremely difficult conditions in the wider area.», said in a statement, the Managing Director of Crete Development Agency, κ. Aris Papadogiannis.
The Amari River Dam is a unique project whose construction was completed in 2006 and started operating in 2008. In fact, the success of its operation is such that «at the moment there are also extensions to the networks to Milopotamos» notes the Director of Hydraulic Works of the OAK.
