On the occasion of the World Water Day on 22nd May, the cosignatory 15 environmental organizations express our complete opposition to the abolition of Hellenic Association of Municipal Water and Sewerage Utilities and to the promotion of the water management of the country to the Public Private Partnership Unit. In this way, water from a vital public good is turning into a commodity, and citizens will have to deal with increased costs, poor environmental management and potential risks to public health.

We call on the Greek Government to respect the will of the majority of the citizens, the decisions made by the Council of State regarding the public dimension of water, the views of the scientific community and not to proceed with the privatization of the most important public good.

The government has announced through the minister of Agricultural Development and Food its intention to abolish the Hellenic Association of Municipal Water and Sewerage Utilities and merge them into Unified Water Management Agency for each Region of the country. This merger will violate the principles of proximity and subsidiarity, as water-related issues will not be managed at the local (therefore more immediate) level, but in Agencies distant, literally and figuratively, from the lives and needs of the local communities.

We call on the Government to treat water as a public good and an environmental-life-sustaining natural resource and to immediately commit to the following:

• Public, sustainable and rational management of the water resources, while ensuring the total cover for needs for any kind of use, having as tools the management of supply and demand and to make sure the free access for all.
• Ensuring that the water management companies will act towards the public, rational and integrated provision of water and sewerage services to citizens, while ensuring the protection and the good state of the bodies of water, in accordance with the Water Framework Directive.
• Returning the positive financial performance of water companies through investments to the infrastructure to improve the services provided as well as through funding research activity for the development of new technological solutions and applications.
• Effective and long term implementation of a tiered pricing policy for the appropriate charging of all water uses which allows free access for all, contributes to the achievement of sustainable goals and the good status of bodies of water and highlights the great importance of stakeholder’s contribution.
• Immediate allocation of the required financial resources for the projects, the information and the training interventions for users in the context of rational water management.
• Immediate and substantial operation of the National Water Council and the Water Councils of the Decentralized Administrations, for the control of rational and sustainable water management measures and the pricing of the corresponding services. 
• Immediate completion of the Flood Risk Management Plans (FMPs) and finalization of the River Basin Plans (RBMPs) according to the results of the consultation completed in December 2023, in order to achieve effective implementation of the proposed measures towards the sustainable management of water resources.
• Setting binding targets for drastic reduction of misuse and waste of fresh water and for measures rationalizing water-demanding crops, such as cotton, which had led to water resources being depleted (for example, in Thessaly). 
• Suspension of any plan to divert Acheloos River. As accepted by the Plenary of the Supreme Court of Cassation, with decision No. 26/2014, this plan is not consistent with the conditions of sustainable development.
• Planning an overall rational management of water resources in rural areas staring from Thessaly: instead of planning pharaonic, costly and energy-intensive projects such as the diversion of Acheloos, redefinition and re-planning the natural flows and places of water (streams, torrents, rivers, size surface water bodies, etc.), urgent construction of small dams on rivers and streams in order to increase the capacity to retain water for crop irrigation and reduce the risk of uncontrolled flow.

Signatures

1. ΑΝΙΜΑ, Hellenic Wildlife Care Association
2. ARION, Cetacean Rescue and Care Research Centre
3. Action for Wildlife
4. Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature
5. Hellenic Ornithological Society
6. Nature friends Greece
7. Society for the Protection of Biodiversity of Thrace
8. Society for the Protection of Prespa
9. Callisto, Wildlife and Nature Conservation Society
10. Μamagea Environmental Organization
11. Ecological Recycling Society (ERS)
12. iSea Environmental Organization for the Preservation of the Aquatic Ecosystems
13. MEDASSET-Mediterranean Association to Save the Sea Turtles
14. MedINA, Mediterranean Institute for Nature and Anthropos
15. Greenpeace Greece