Gavdos: power fault has hit the water supply too

A fault on the Gavdos electricity network has had knock-on effects across the island, since it has also affected the operation of the water supply network. According to an announcement by the Municipality of Gavdos published by neakriti.gr, the problem appeared on Wednesday 19 August in the zone of Karave, Sarakiniko and Ai Giannis, with the result that the water supply fed from Sarakiniko was curtailed. The municipality issued an appeal to residents and visitors: “Residents and visitors to the island are asked to reduce their water consumption immediately to what is absolutely necessary, until the fault is repaired.” A DEDDIE crew was expected to reach Gavdos on the scheduled ferry on the evening of Thursday 20 August in order to carry out the repair.

That detail of timing explains the scale of the problem on its own. On Gavdos a repair crew cannot travel whenever it is needed: it depends on the ferry schedule, which in turn depends on the weather. So a fault that on a mainland network would be repaired within a few hours is drawn out here over a whole day or more. And because the pumps that feed the water supply network run on electricity, the outage does not merely leave homes in the dark, it simultaneously restricts the water supply. Two basic pieces of island infrastructure go down together, from a single cause. The same pattern was recorded the same day in Heraklion, where a power cut at the Keri borehole field left five districts with water supply problems, with the difference that there the repair crew does not have to wait for a boat.

The timing makes matters worse. The last third of August is the period of heaviest visitor traffic on Gavdos, when the island’s population multiplies relative to its permanent residents and demand for water peaks. Visitors camping on the beaches of Sarakiniko and Ai Giannis depend on the same water points as the residents of Karave, while Karave is also the port through which every supply delivery to the island passes. The municipality’s appeal is therefore addressed not only to permanent residents but also to people who are on Gavdos for a few days and do not know how limited the reserves are. The island is in any case often in the news for another reason: Wednesday 19 August had seen a rescue operation for 46 people south of Gavdos, in an area where local authorities are called on to respond with minimal means.

The next step depends on the crew’s arrival and on what it finds at the site of the fault. The municipality gave no estimate for full restoration, nor did it clarify whether the problem concerns an undersea cable, the overhead network or a local installation. The wider question of energy autonomy for Gavdos also remains open, that is, whether there will be back-up supply for the pumping stations so that the water supply does not collapse every time the power goes down. More from the area on the Chania page.