Water resources management in Greece: Current status and prospective outlook

The basic aim of this paper is to present the existing conditions and problems of water resources management in Greece. Water demand has increased tremendously over the past 30 years. Despite adequate precipitation, water imbalance is often experienced, due to temporal and regional variations of the precipitation, the increased water demand during the summer months and the difficulty of transporting water due to the mountainous terrain. Integration of reclaimed wastewater originating from the wastewater treatment plant effluents into the water resources management is proposed. This plan exhibits the potential for reducing the pollution loads entering sea or inland waters, while at the same time providing water for irrigation.