Soufli asks for the army for the Tychero embankment, fears of loss of 40,000 acres from the floods in Evros

The greatest pressures are recorded in areas such as Soufli, Lavara, Feres, Tychero, Didymoteicho and Orestiada, where large quantities of water have flooded arable land and are located a short distance from residential areas.

Residents remain on alert, as the volumes of water arriving from Bulgaria via the Evros River and its tributary Arda are particularly high.

The Municipality of Soufli is expected to request the assistance of the army to reinforce the embankment in Tychero with sandbags, where the water pressure is enormous and there is a fear that it will break.

Evros remains in the “red”

Four dikes have already broken in the Soufli area, specifically in Kornofolia, Mandra, Amorio and Fylahto, resulting in flooding of areas.

The bodies of the area are fighting together with the residents to hold the dike in Tychero, which if it finally breaks, will be lost in tons of water, about 40,000 acres with important crops such as asparagus, etc.

Below Soufli, the plain has been submerged in water and the fence that was built as a measure to prevent the invasion of illegal immigrants is "holding back", as can be seen in the video, significant quantities of water although according to measurements, as the president of TOEB, Giorgos Mathioudakis, told protothema.gr, "the level has risen compared to yesterday".

"The only positive thing is that the waters from Bulgaria stopped as we were informed that a dam broke there too and areas were flooded, so now not so much water is coming down towards us" he said characteristically.

Farmers are experiencing unprecedented situations after many years and the damage that their crops have suffered is enormous. "Sowing one hectare of wheat cost 80 euros, and the state will compensate the farmer with 70 euros for the entire area he sowed. And he will get these 70 euros after two years,” said Mr. Mathioudakis.

Level in Pythio at 6.22 meters
With the waters having flooded the entire “yard” of Pythio and their level being at 6.22 meters, the residents of the village are looking with despair at the phenomenon that once again, as they say, has destroyed thousands of crops.

The Evros River has overflowed, having literally submerged about 13,000 acres of crops in Pythio, while the same scene is unfolding on the opposite side in Turkey, where a digging machine can be seen, which, as a resident of Pythio said, “they are working day and night in Turkey to strengthen their embankments.”

“The waters today have dropped by about 60 points and the level is at 6.22 meters. The damage is very great. Pythio has 13,500 acres, all of which are flooded and the residents are in despair. Of these acres, approximately 3,500 are sown with grain and the rest are with alfalfa. These have now been destroyed,” the president of Pythio, Giorgos Saridis, told protothema.gr.

The residents of the area are worried that even if the waters “retract” in the coming days and the level drops in the next rain, the situation will be worse as the land will not be able to absorb the water.

"It is a phenomenon that has been developing over the past month. The level has reached 7.7 meters from 3.25 meters," said Konstantinos Vouvalidis, professor of Geomorphology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, to ertnews.

According to available data, approximately 1,600 cubic meters of water per second end up in the river, mainly from the Ivaylovgrad dam. As a result, extensive areas in the plain of Soufli, Tychero and other areas have been flooded or are in immediate danger.

The situation is particularly difficult in the Erythropotamos area, near Didymoteicho, where large areas have already been covered by water. In Lavara, a warning message from 112 was sent yesterday in the early hours of the morning, calling on residents to remain on alert, while it was reported that within a few hours the water level had risen by up to 2.5 meters.

At the same time, the northern junction of Lavara remains closed, as significant quantities of water have entered the settlement from the plain. In some places, the water level reaches up to six meters, while the authorities continue to monitor the embankments.

According to the measurements at the Pythio station, the river level showed a slight decline, which is partly attributed to overflowing and breaking of embankments in both Bulgaria and Turkey, near the Adrianople area, where part of the waters are being released.

At the same time, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited the area, who was informed by the Regional Governor of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace and the mayors of the affected areas. As announced, infrastructure projects totaling 30 million euros are planned through the Integrated Spatial Investment, with the aim of strengthening infrastructure and managing water resources in the region.

The competent services remain on alert, as the evolution of the water level depends largely on the inflows from neighboring countries and the weather conditions of the coming days.