Platys Potamos dam: parliamentary question over the delay

A parliamentary question addressed to the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Christos Dimas, has been tabled by the New Democracy MP for Heraklion, Konstantinos Kefalogiannis, seeking explanations for the delay in launching the tender for the Platys Potamos dam. According to a report in the newspaper Nea Kriti, the project bears the title “Platys Potamos Dam, Rethymno Prefecture, with a transfer pipeline to Messara and irrigation networks in Rethymno Prefecture” and its budget comes to 175 million euros including Value Added Tax. Although the tender was expected within the first half of 2026, to date the relevant competition has not been announced.

The project is designed to reinforce the Faneromeni reservoir and to cover the irrigation needs of Messara, the largest plain in Crete, in the Regional Unit of Heraklion. The dam is being built in the prefecture of Rethymno and the water is transferred by pipeline to the south of Heraklion, meaning that this is a project linking two regional units. In January 2026 the Collective Project Decision for funding the required expropriations was approved, while since March 2023 there have been eight approved land registry studies for the compulsory expropriations. The MP is asking for a specific timetable both for completing the declaration of the expropriations and for the tender. The Faneromeni reservoir already serves as a basic source of irrigation for the wider area, but its capacity is not sufficient to cover demand in years of low rainfall.

The delay has practical significance for the agricultural economy of Messara, where olives, vines, vegetables and greenhouse crops that depend on irrigation are grown. The area faces recurrent problems of water sufficiency, with underground reserves under pressure from over-abstraction and from the reduced rainfall of recent years. Major hydraulic works in Crete have historically had long maturation times, since they require environmental permits, land registry studies and large-scale expropriations, procedures that run in parallel and often hold one another up. Messara accounts for a significant part of Crete’s agricultural production and its exports depend on the stability of irrigation during the summer months.

The ministry’s reply will show whether there is a new timetable for launching the tender and what stage the declaration of the expropriations has reached. It has not been announced whether the delay is due to outstanding studies, to funding issues or to administrative procedures. Nor has it become known whether the project falls under a specific funding instrument, a detail that also determines the deadlines for implementation. Parliamentary interventions concerning infrastructure in Crete have been tabled frequently of late, as with the sports facilities of Lasithi. The deadline for answering a parliamentary question is as a rule thirty days.