Increased uranium levels in two water sources supplying 2,000 people in the municipality of Serres, showed the controls of the Municipal Water Supply and Sewerage Company of Serres (DEYAS), resulting in the water being deemed unfit for drinking and for cooking.

According to the DEYAS announcement, the ban applies to a total of seven areas of the municipality of Serres, specifically the areas: 1) Melenikiotika, North of Delphi Street, above the intersection of Papastefanou Street, 2) End of Evthalia Adam Street, above the intersection of Papazoglou Street, 3) Serres – Chrysopigi District Road, 4) Chrysopigi Settlement, 5) Metochiou Settlement, 6) D. Municipality of Lefkonas, 7) Municipality of Christos.

At noon on Thursday, a press conference was held where the stakeholders communicated the steps to be taken, ensuring the protection of consumers. The mayor of Serres and president of DEYAS, Varvara Mitliaga stressed that the issue concerns the “implementation of the European directive on the quality of water for human consumption” and that all DEYAs in the country are obliged to harmonize by January 12, 2026. In this context, the Ministry of Health issued a relevant circular on 9 April 2025, calling on all relevant agencies to start preventive controls to ensure that water for human consumption fully complies with certain parametric values for a number of new elements, such as bisphenol A, chlorates, chlorides, haloacetic acids, microcystin-LR,total PFAS and uranium.

“The DEYA Serres was one of the first DEYAs in the country to immediately proceed with testing of its entire water supply network. The first measurement results showed slightly elevated uranium values in some areas. Subsequently, we proceeded to immediate actions to inform the Directorate of Public Health, the Ministry of Health and the competent services of the Region, “noted Ms. Mitliaga.

The deputy regional governor of Serres Panagiotis Spyropoulos, stressed that the issue must be treated responsibly and based on scientific guidelines. In addition, he praised the immediate reaction of DEYA Serres, which took measurements and identified the problems in time.

For his part, the general director of DEYAS, Nikos Safarikas, pointed out that the municipality of Serres and DEYAS responsibly inform citizens about the actions taken. As he disclosed, exceedances were detected in the sources Batania and Moravona, from which about 2,000 supplies are affected out of the 47,100 that the municipality of Serres has in total.

According to what was announced by DEYAS, there will soon be a new announcement to lift the ban, depending on the instructions of the Public Health Directorate, while the planning and implementation of water refining projects has already begun, giving a definitive solution to the problem of exceeding the parametric value of uranium in the above areas.