Uncontrolled construction in Greek capital has led to many streams being concreted over, leaving rivers no outlet to the sea

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Chaotic urban planning and illegal construction in Athens played a central role in the deadly flash floods that killed 20 people last week, experts in Greece have claimed as authorities pledged emergency funding for victimsmade homeless by the disaster.

About 1,000 owners of homes and businesses are eligible for the assistance, according to government engineers dispatched to inspect the buildings.

“All buildings that have sustained damage will receive emergency funding of €5,000 [£4,400] while businesses in the same situation will receive €8,000,” government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said on Monday.

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Five days after the flash floods turned the city’s roads into raging torrents of mud and debris, specialised rescue response teams continued to search for missing people.

Two male drivers thought to have been trapped in their vehicles when the torrential rains hit have yet to be accounted for. The death toll rose on Sunday when disaster units discovered two bodies in a warehouse in Mandra, the western suburb where damage was most widespread.

Most of the fatalities were elderly people found in basement flats that had been inundated by floodwater. Two men were swept into the sea in the bay of Eleusis, 11 miles (18km) from Athens city centre, by the force of the deluge.

Poor infrastructure, including drainage systems, often makes Athens susceptible to flooding. But many believe the roads in the three suburbs of Mandra, Megara and Nea Peramos were inundated because of human intervention.

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Uncontrolled building on the outskirts of the Greek capital has resulted in numerous streams being concreted over, leaving rivers with no natural outlet to the sea. A lack of anti-flooding measures exacerbated the disaster.

Geologists described the floods as a tragedy waiting to happen. A network of streams in the foothills of the mountain where the neighbourhoods are located has been paved over in recent decades, including a stretch of riverbed where municipal authorities have constructed buildings.

“The tragedy is that in 1996 we had two victims in the same area [of Mandra] precisely because the flow of water had been blocked,” said Dimitris Papanikolaou, emeritus professor of geology at Athens University.

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He added that such were the dangers of flooding in Mandra, it had been a course study for his doctoral students. “Nature had already warned that such intervention was disastrous, that not maintaining the natural flow of water was disastrous,” he said.

Aliki Mouriki, a prominent sociologist, said the floods had been very revealing because they had exposed all the “weaknesses and pathologies” of the modern Greek state.

“In the saddest possible way, they have not only highlighted the lack of urban planning but housing policies for the poor in working-class areas,” she said.

“When people’s pressing needs aren’t met, they resort to their own solutions – in this case illegal construction with no environmental considerations or respect for rules and regulations.”