Ioannina: no answer on flood protection works

The mayor of Ioannina, Thomas Begkas, said on Tuesday 18 August that the municipality has received no response from the government on funding for flood protection works in the city, while also directing criticism at other institutional actors in the area. «We have not received a single euro… and we have had no answer», the mayor said, according to the report in the local newspaper Typos Ioanninon. The statements came a day after the downpour of Monday 17 August, which caused flooding on streets in the Votanikos area. Up to the time of publication no response from the competent ministry or any other government side to the mayor’s claims has been made known, and the details set out here come exclusively from the municipal authority.

According to what the municipality maintains, the request is not a general one but is accompanied by a technically documented and costed plan of works. The total value of the plan comes to eleven million euros, while in a first phase two to three million euros are being sought for the works described as urgent. The municipal authority states that it will proceed with works on a priority basis using its own means, without waiting for state funding, a choice which in practice means the cost falls on the municipal budget and other works may be delayed. The question of which body has the competence and the financial capacity for flood protection works in an urban fabric keeps recurring in many municipalities across the country.

For Ioannina, the issue is not a theoretical one. The city is built in a basin with high rainfall, and the intense summer storms, which occur over a short period of time, exceed the drainage capacity of the storm water network at certain points. The Votanikos area is one of those that show recurring problems with roads being flooded. For the residents and businesspeople of these neighbourhoods, every such episode translates into flooded basements, damage to vehicles and temporary traffic disruption. The climate variability of recent years, with more frequent and more intense rainfall events, has made storm water management a central issue for Greek cities rather than a secondary technical matter.

The next step, based on what the municipal authority has announced, is the start of works on a priority basis with the municipality’s own resources, with no timetable or list of the locations that will come first having been announced. The progress of the request for state funding remains open, as neither a rejection nor an approval has been made public. The publicity the dispute is attracting a day after a flooding episode fits a recurring pattern in relations between local government and the central state. More in the Society section and in the Politics section.