Ministerial promise for the dam near Yassiköy

The Greek minister for agricultural development and nutrition Evangelos Basiakos promised at his visit in Komotini at the beginning of March the construction of the dam near Yassýköy (Iasmos). Basiakos who made a speech on March 6th at the General office for the region of Western Macedonia and Thrace within the scope of a reunion of directors of the regional administration, announced that the plans for the project of the Yassiöy-dam would be finished in February of 2006 and could then be submitted for approval to the European Union.

If the project should be realised, so in the province of Rodopi an area of 600.000 hectare would be inundated.
The construction of the Yassýköy-dam has already been announced 11 times by different governments but until today no concrete progresses have been achieved.

The minister for agriculture Basiakos also talked about the cultivation of cotton which is very important for this region. The cotton production happened to have a bad year. But for the years 2006/07 the aim has been set to receive the greatest possible allocation of EU-development funds. In Greece the majority of the citizens live from agriculture . „We want to receive this share, otherwise we have to fear that the rural regions will be depopulated by a drift to the cities and cannot be cultivated anymore”, according to the minister.