Kastellorizo island to get 870,000 euro desalination plant

eKathimerini — Greece’s Shipping Industry and the General Secretariat for the Aegean and Island Policy have signed a 870,000 euro contract for the construction of a desalination plant on the remote, easternmost  Dodecanese island of Kastellorizo.

Officials said the facility, whose construction is expected to start later this year, will produce at least 40,000 cubic meters of water annually – enough to cover the requirements of the island’s population of around 500.

The project is expected to sharply reduce the cost of supplying water to the island, which lies close to Turkey’s southwestern coast almost half way between Rhodes and Cyprus.  So far the island has depended on water being brought in by boat from Rhodes 78 miles away.