A series of violations leading to water quality degradation in Patmos and direct discharge of untreated sewage into the sea were identified by officials from the South Aegean Regional Environmental Directorate at the island’s Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Shocking images reported by protothema.gr showed brown water running from household taps, along with strong odors reported by residents. This prompted a preliminary investigation ordered by the Dodecanese Prosecutor’s Office and a series of inspections by the relevant authorities. Following the Regional Environmental Directorate’s inspection, today a team from the Public Health Directorate will visit the island.

Inspection Findings

According to the report published by protothema.gr, almost nothing is functioning properly at the Patmos Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The report states that during the inspection of the Patmos Municipal Wastewater Treatment Facility, it was explicitly confirmed by the responsible operators present that for the past month and a half, no wastewater treatment has been conducted, resulting in untreated sewage being discharged into the sea.

The problem is attributed to the high salinity of the incoming sewage, which damages the treatment membranes. The high salinity occurs because the sewer network lies below sea level.

At the same time, the plant’s submarine pipeline is out of service due to debris entering it, and no perimeter tree planting has been carried out around the facility.

The report notes:
“During inspection at pumping station YA1 in the ‘Chochlakas’ area, no odors causing environmental degradation were detected under Article 2 of Law 1650/86. Recommendations were made to the responsible operators to restore the full functionality of the facility according to approved environmental terms, repair the sewage transfer networks to prevent excessive salinity, restore the treatment membranes, and repair the submarine pipeline through which treated sewage is discharged into the sea.”

Summary of Key Omissions from the Report:

• Pollution of the sewage recipient, as the facility is out of operation without prior notification to the relevant Environmental Authority, without corrective measures from the operators, and without a timeline for completion, violating condition 6.59 of the related environmental permit.
• Failure to restore the landscape of the treatment plant area with plantings, violating condition 6.3 of the related environmental permit.