Seven Greek islands in the Aegean Sea have declared drought emergencies this year to preserve water as climate change makes summers hotter and rainfall more erratic.
Now, authorities are wondering if it will rain next year to sustain the thousands of tourists who strain the supply of water just when locals need it most.
The butterfly-shaped island of Astypalaia, which relies on bottled water for drinking, lies east of the mainland and did not benefit from rain in northern and western parts of Greece that gave the country its wettest winter since 2022.
For Astypalaia in the southeastern Aegean, it was the second driest season since 2020, according to data by local authorities, creating dilemmas for officials.
“If we collected all the water dropped throughout the year in a bucket or in a washbowl, it would be 2.5 cm deep,” said mayor Nikos Komineas, standing near a man-made lake surrounded by dry hills with sparse low scrub, the island’s sole water reservoir built in the mid-1990s.
