Before drought took hold, Koroneia Lake in northern Greece was a protected wetland, a refuge for thousands of migratory and water birds, including flamingos, and a magnet for tourists as well as local fishermen and farmers.
Today, after a decade of low rainfall and over-irrigation, Koroneia, once the fifth largest lake in Greece, has shrunk to less than a 10th of its original size, according to data from the National Observatory of Athens. The water that remains is collected in a series of murky ponds, and the exposed lake bed is a vast mud plain cracked and bleached by years of baking sun.
The area has become a symbol of how climate change and drought are impacting northern Greece, where rainfall has become more erratic and where farmers are increasingly desperate to pump lake water onto their crops. The problem affected much of Europe this summer, when heat waves and low rainfall shrank rivers and lakes to levels not seen in decades, impacting the delivery of goods and curtailing energy output.
"We knew the lake in its good days, with fishermen, with plenty of water, a wonderful park and beautiful scenes with birds. Today, what we see is a disappointment," said Costas Hatzivoulgaridis, head of the lakeside community of Agios Vassilios.
Scientists say the lake's water resources started dwindling after a rainy 2015 to 2016 season. Years of low rainfall and above-average heat have since evaporated not only the lake water but also the springs that used to feed it.
Satellite images published by the National Observatory of Athens show that its surface has shrunk to 2.7 square kilometers (about 1 square mile) from 34.4 square kilometers in 2016.
"The main factor behind the lake's falling level is certainly annual rainfall in its catchment, which has averaged about 400 millimeters (15.75 inches) over at least the last five years. That is about 150 millimeters less than in previous decades," said Dimitris Papadimos, head of water resources management and climate change at the National Wetland Center, from his office in Thessaloniki.
Moreover, as average local temperatures have climbed in recent years, evaporation has increased by 100 to 150 millimeters a year, he said.
The problem is partly man-made. Farmers desperate for water for their cattle and crops have long used the lake to make up for less rainfall, locals and officials said.
When a Reuters reporter visited last month, a farmer was using a giant pump to suck water from what is left of the lake onto his fields.
Authorities say they have taken action since a European Union court ruled in 2013 that Greece had failed to protect Koroneia against over-irrigation, illegal water drilling and pollution.
The secretary general for water resources at the Greek Environment Ministry, Petros Varelidis, told Reuters that greater monitoring was now in place to reduce irrigation.
