Polluted "concrete coastline" no lure for Greeks

By Karolos Grohmann

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece is struggling to contain coastal pollution which threatens its renowned azure waters and golden coastlines, the main sources of its booming tourism industry.

"A few years ago I swam here every day but in the past two summers it is just too dirty so I just play on the beach," said 37-year-old Stavros Georgiadis, who plays racquet ball on the beach of Alimos along the capital's coast almost daily.

"I don't know if it is actually dirtier but it just looks filthier, more stuff floating on the water -- I'm not going to swim in there."

Most coastal cities, including the capital Athens, northern port city of Thessaloniki and Patra in southwestern Greece, are said by the United Nations and the European Environment Agency to be major pollutants due to partly untreated industrial and household wastewater.

"Some areas in the bays of Athens and Thessaloniki are complete dead zones. For some, there is no chance of ever recovering," Greenpeace Greece Director Nikos Haralambidis told Reuters.

In a joint report issued last year, the U.N. Environment Programme and the European Environment Agency said the bay of Elefsis near Athens with about 1,000 industrial plants, including shipyards, iron and steel works and refineries, was polluted by heavy metals, among other things.

"On a scale of one to 10 I would rate their water quality somewhere in the middle," the United Nations' Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) coordinator Paul Mifsud told Reuters.

He said while other areas of Greece may get a better rating such as some of the islands or areas with lower population or industry accumulation, the cities' waters are suffering from poorly treated urban and industrial wastewater.