Lake Dojran is 1.20 metres below the minimum agreed with Greece, and not even the hydrometeorological service knows how much water the rescue canal brings

Lake Dojran is retreating again. According to the latest measurements by the Hydrometeorological Service, the level is 144.93 metres above sea level. In February it was 145.42. The fifty or so centimetres the lake won back between October and February, thanks to a rainy autumn and winter, the dry summer drank up in a few months.

The number that hurts more is a different one. The minimum level agreed with Greece is 146.13 metres. The lake is now 1.20 metres below that - below the minimum the two countries agreed on.

A rescue system without measurement

There is a hydro system to save Lake Dojran. Water flows through its canal. But how much - not even the service that measures the water level knows. "Even though water is flowing in the canal of the Lake Dojran rescue system, we have no information on how much water is flowing," says Vasko Stojov, head of the hydrology department at the Hydrometeorological Service. His explanation is that the water may for now be filling groundwater, which is why the difference is not visible at the surface.

Maybe. But a system in which the state pumps water into a lake while its own hydrological service does not know how much water goes in sounds like rescuing trust, not measuring anything. Stojov points to evaporation, highest in high temperatures and strong winds, and warns that the level will keep falling for some time yet. His proposal is dams on several watercourses to hold back rainwater.

The solution, for now, is on paper

On paper, a solution is being prepared. In August a call titled "Optimal management of Lake Dojran" was presented in Greece, part of the cross-border programme Interreg VI-A IPA 2021-2027, with a total budget of 3,071,591 euros. The Centre for the Southeast Planning Region and the Ministry of Environment applied before the 21 September deadline. The planned activities include strategies, joint management structures and a solar power system meant to cut the electricity costs of the mechanism that tops up the lake.

But before any new strategies, Dojran needs a simple answer: how much water goes in, how much goes out, and who is responsible when the number drops even lower. Forecasters expect rain towards the end of the week. Will the lake once again be waiting for the sky to save it?