Prime Minister chairs meeting on recovery of fire-ravaged areas

[Ellinas]

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis on Tuesday chaired a high-level meeting focusing on planning for the recovery of areas ravaged by August's massive wildfires. According to ministers attending, priority in the coming months will be given to the rebuilding of destroyed homes and farm buildings, protection against flooding and soil erosion and preparing environmental studies for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the burnt areas.

Taking part in the meeting were the interior, economy, defence, development, environment and agriculture ministers, all of whom will be involved in various aspects of the recovery effort, as well as the head of the newly established solidarity fund for the areas' reconstruction, former foreign minister Petros Molyviatis.

Molyviatis later announced that 149.6 million euros have so far been collected by the fund, which would give priority to the free rebuilding of destroyed homes, as per the prime minister's instructions.

This was confirmed by Environment, Town Planning and Public Works Minister George Souflias, whose ministry will be involved in all areas of reconstruction and rehabilitation, who said that "The state, also via the Solidarity Fund, will provide everything needed to rebuild the houses that have been recorded [as damaged] for free."

"In total there are about 1,100 houses that have been completely destroyed and about 800 that have suffered partial destruction in the Peloponnese, in Evia and Attica," the minister said.

He also noted that the fires had claimed a large number of storage sheds and buildings for other uses, such as stables and sheep pens. According to Molyviatis, these would also be rebuilt for free.

Outlining the results of the meeting, Souflias said there had been an overview of the "several and complex problems involved" and stressed that the government had "a long road ahead of it".

According to Souflias, all the immediate measures that were necessary had been carried out at once but there was still a great deal to do for the implementation of medium-term measures and for the overall economic and environmental reconstruction of the fire-ravaged regions.

Among such medium-term measures, he listed the construction of works to protect against flooding and soil erosion, that were currently underway in all prefectures.

Souflias reported that the government had already begun to carry out environmental studies and reforestation studies and also announced that the army's geographical service would begin taking aerial photographs of the burnt areas on Wednesday, after fixing an earlier malfunction in the relevant systems.

According to the minister, environmental studies could begin once a record of the areas due for reforestation had been made and were expected to be completed by November at the latest. He said these would deal with broader plans that included all the measures needed in order to boost the area's economy and construct necessary infrastructure.

He also stressed that the two major highways destined to be built through the areas will create much better conditions in the future for the region's development.

Noting that achieving the above targets would require a constant effort by all levels of government, Souflias announced that Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos will be visiting fire-ravaged areas in order to arrange cooperation with prefecture and municipal authorities toward this end.

Rebuilding work to go to local firms, minister says

In response to questions, Souflias clarified that money for the rebuilding of destroyed homes would be given directly to the fire victims themselves, rather than awarding a contract to a big construction firm through tenders, so that local construction firms would get the jobs.

He said the amounts given would be based on the size of the owner's previous home and the size of their family. If a family with four children were living in a small home, for example, they would receive additional money to build a larger home than their previous one, the minister clarified.

The money will be paid out as the building work progresses, while the government would also establish construction and aesthetic criteria, such as having tile roofs or preventing solar water heaters from jutting out above the roof. Home owners will also be able to choose between three-four different house designs prepared by the ministry for each size of home, he added.

ANA