Greece and Bulgaria have agreed to a five-year deal under which Bulgaria will be providing water to its neighbor via the Arda River to avoid water shortages in the region.
The new agreement replaces short-term quarterly arrangements over the past year that ensured water supply in the region and is pending signature by Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis.
Water supply from the Arda River is critical for agriculture in northern Greece and the Evros region as well as for the area’s aquatic ecosystem.
The Arda is over 275-kilometer long, of which 241 kilometers are in Bulgarian territory. On the Greek side, the river flows through vast arable lands, which makes it of key importance for agriculture and biodiversity in the region.
Under the agreement, Bulgaria guarantees water supply via its Arda dam system for five years, while Greece in turn pledges to modernize its existing dam infrastructure and construct a new facility to enable independent storage and regulated water flow for its water needs.
Athens also agrees to compensate Sofia for operational losses when Bulgaria’s hydroelectric dam releases water solely for irrigation purposes rather than electricity generation.
“The Joint Declaration guarantees the provision by Bulgaria of a sufficient amount of water for a period of five years, thus ensuring the smooth and continuous functioning of the irrigation system and agricultural production in the Evros border region, after the expiry of the relevant 60-year bilateral agreement between Greece and Bulgaria,” the Greek Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The decades-long water supply agreement between Greece and Bulgaria
The agreement between Greece and Bulgaria on the latter’s commitment to supply regulated water from the Arda River expired in July 2024. It was signed in 1964 and provided that Greece directly irrigate over 817,000 hectares in northern Evros and indirectly irrigate 400,000 hectares.
In the summer of 2024, Greece requested and received from Bulgaria 80 million cubic meters of water to compensate for the reduced reserves in the Greek parts of the Arda and Mesta rivers.
While Greece will begin to modernize its existing dam as stipulated under the new agreement, Bulgaria agrees to provide the service of “accumulation, storage and regulated supply of water volumes” from the Arda River through the Arda cascade system for irrigation of lands in Greek territory until the construction of the dam for five years from the signed joint declaration.
The two countries will review the agreement anew after the current deal expires.
Bulgaria has built three dams on the Arda River, the only system of large dams on a single river in Bulgaria. The total volume of the dams exceeds 1.2 billion cubic meters, making it the largest dam cascade in the country.
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