Young Reporters > A visit to the "Asopos" river

This year, the Environmental Team of Oinofyta High School has decided to deal with the river "Asopos". Asopos river springs from the "Kitheronas" mountain, in region of Voiotia Central Greece, and flows into South Evoikos Gulf, near Oropos city, in region of Attiki. Our Team has chosen this project for the following reasons: Firstly, because there is an important issue of pollution in our area and secondly, due to the fact that the river crosses the town of Oinofyta, an area that our school is situated as well. Years ago Asopos was a very clean river where the habitants even used to swim in. In addition, there were many species of animals and plants. Our Team visited the river on the 16th December 2004 in a certain point nearby our school in order to ascertain its condition. The view we faced was disappointing... The river was not only obscene but it has also been converted to a rubish dump. Every kind of rubbish were thrown into the bed of the river and the colour of its scarce water looked rather black. Of course, the pollution of the river is not caused by the rubbish that the habitants throw, but mainly due to the fact that our area which the river flows is industrial. It is considered that over than 300 factories dispose their liquid waste into the river. So, the river is used as a place of disposal of factories' waste. Throughout the river, if someone wants to visit it, will find out that there are a lot of "pipes" of factories which throw into the river not processssed wastes. Some factories have biological cleaning but it is doubtful whether they use it, as the cost of their operation is high. As for the life of the river, we could say that it has not died totally yet, because it can easily be observed that there are many small birds which keep their nests among the stubbles and this is a very optimistic point. Asopos' pollution is a very serious problem that concerns our region, because the contaminated water not only is not drinkable but also pollutes the surrounding fields which produce agricultural products such as wheat, vegetables, grapes e.t.c. These products, though, result in our plates after a little time. These were some first impressions and conclusions that we have following our visit to the river and we hope that some actions will be taken in order to find a solution for this extremely severe problem. George Gillamenti Nick Alevras 3d Class of Oinofyta High School Voiotia Greece