When the Water Runs Out, the Illusion Runs With It

There are moments when bureaucracy accidentally tells the truth.

The Municipal Water and Sewerage Company of Agios Nikolaos did precisely that when asked a simple, procedural question: Can you supply water to a new five-star hotel unit in Plaka?

The answer, stripped of polite phrasing, was devastatingly clear: no.

Due to intense tourism activity in the Plaka area and a dramatic rise in summer water demand, the utility states it cannot guarantee an adequate water supply for large hotel units. Not now. Not as things stand. Not honestly.

This is not an activist claim. It is not a protest banner. It is an official response, issued in the context of an Environmental Impact Study for a major hotel investment. And it should stop us cold.

A Five-Star Hotel Without Water

The numbers alone are sobering. The hotel in question would require up to 236 cubic metres of water per day during peak operation, from April to October — precisely when the region already struggles. The utility’s reply makes it explicit: a unit of that scale cannot be supplied.

The only scenario under which water provision could even be reconsidered is a future one — after water transfer works from the Aposelemis dam are completed and after a desalination plant in Plaka becomes operational. Both are promises, not realities. pasted

Until then, the message is blunt: there is no water to give.

Sewage, Sludge, and the Polite “Impossible”

The water problem is only half the story.

The wastewater treatment plant of Elounda has exceeded its capacity. The connection of the new hotel unit to the sewerage network in Plaka is considered impossible. Not difficult. Not delayed. Impossible. pasted

As a result, new hotel units are expected to build and operate their own wastewater treatment facilities, manage their own sludge, dehydrate it locally, install grease traps, and identify appropriate disposal recipients. Even then, the utility makes it clear it will not accept additional sludge from hotel installations.

Only under very specific future conditions — and with dehydrated sludge meeting strict standards — might limited acceptance be considered, at a cost, and only once a separate sludge treatment facility is fully operational. pasted

In the event of system failure, untreated or treated wastewater may be transported by tanker trucks to Agios Nikolaos — for up to five days — provided strict quality controls are met. Swimming pool water and desalination by-products are explicitly banned. This is not a sustainable plan. It is damage control.

What This Actually Means

Let us say the quiet part out loud: Crete is approving — or attempting to approve — large, water-intensive tourism developments in areas where water utilities officially admit they cannot supply water and cannot handle sewage.

The answer is not “no more hotels.” The answer appears to be: build them anyway and let everyone improvise later.

Water will be “re-examined.” Treatment plants will be “upgraded.” Infrastructure will be “planned.”All in the future tense.

Meanwhile, environmental impact studies move forward, permits are discussed, and investments are framed as inevitable. This is how shortages stop being emergencies and become policy.

The Real Scandal

The real scandal is not that the utility said no. The scandal is that this “no” does not automatically end the conversation.

When a public authority formally states it cannot guarantee water adequacy, that should be the end of the file — not a footnote to be worked around with tankers, promises, and optimistic timelines. Tourism cannot keep expanding on water that does not exist, and Crete cannot continue pretending that future infrastructure will retroactively justify present decisions.

The document says what many locals already know. Now it is written down, and once water scarcity is acknowledged on paper, there are no illusions left to hide behind.