Heavy rainfalls on Christmas Eve caused a 10-meter-deep cliff of the bed of the Pikrodafni stream that runs dangerously close to residential areas of Agios Dimitrios municipality in south Athens.
Residents are upset and some of them sleep in the cars at night fearing the worst, that is that part of the ground on which their houses are built would collapse.
Agios Dimitrios has been declared in a state of emergency for safety reasons for three months, until March 24, 2026, following a request by the mayor Stelios Mamalakis.
However, due to the 2-day Christmas holidays and the attacked weekend, the regional government of Attica will not be able to send inspection teams, before Monday, December 29.
Residents of the area described the subsidence of the road as an “earthquake.”
A dog in a yard of a house narrowly escaped death, when the entire yard collapsed and ended up in the stream bed, a security camera has shown.
The Pikrodafni stream: the neglected urban river in south-east Athens
The rainfalls that hit Attica on Christmas Eve caused the Pikrodafni stream to swell and the rushing waters to cause the subsidence of the road above the stream.
One of the oldest streams in Athens, the Pikrodafni stream, a small urban river flowing from Hymettus mountain into Saronic Gulf, specifically in Palaio Faliro next to the Edem beach.
The 9.3-kilometer-long ecologically significant urban river flows also through dense populated suburbs of Athens such as Vyronas, Ilioupoli, Agios Dimitrios where it has been closed in several spots, Alimos and Palaio Faliro.
Being the third largest river of Athens, after Kifissos and Ilissos, the banks of Pikrodafni stream were inhabited also in the Antique as it led to the port of Faliro.
Every once in a while, local and regional authorities work out studies on how to secure the stream and the buildings along its bed, however, before the projects materialize, the situation has changed and the studies land in the garbage bins.
In essence, the crucial natural asset of Greek capital, Athens, remains neglected and there is always risk that its banks may collapse.
PS ask us who live relatively close to Pikrodafni stream and have been knowing it since early childhood.
Imagine looking out your window and realizing nature has revoked your property line.