RHODES, October 2026 — Archangelos flood works meant to protect a Dodecanese town on Rhodes remain stuck years after the design began, South Aegean regional governor Georgios Hatzimarkos said.
The study for anti-flood protection at Archangelos was finished in 2023. In January 2025 the project entered the region’s co-funded programme with a budget of €5.1 million. Construction of the Archangelos flood works has still not started.
As a result, residents face another wet season without completed defences, even after the deadly storm that hit Rhodes on 14 and 15 October. Greek City Times has already reported on the Rhodes storm damage.
“For three years we have tried to licence the project but we keep hitting agencies and services,” Hatzimarkos said.
“The Speleological Society first gave us the green light, but within a few days it told us it was withdrawing its decision because it had not carried out an inspection,” he said. “We waited six months for the inspection and had to ask the Decentralised Administration to intervene before it finally happened.”
Archangelos flood works delays
The Ephorate of Antiquities then ruled that the works would create a visual nuisance, he said. The region appealed to the Central Archaeological Council and won.
After three years, the Environmental Terms Approval (AEPO) was issued. Technical sheets still need changes to match agency comments. If things go well, the Archangelos flood works can go to tender within about six months and will then need at least a year to finish, Hatzimarkos said.
Until then, he said, people in the area — and in many other parts of the country — can only hope rain stays light. The South Aegean Region is managing the co-funded Archangelos flood works.
Why the streams fill fast
Rhodes, like many islands, is mountainous, with high peaks and steep slopes, Niki Evelpidou, a professor in the Department of Geology and Geoenvironment at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, said.
Because of that, streams are short. Rain does not soak into the ground in time, and water can reach the sea within minutes of a storm, she said.
The stream that runs through Archangelos and Stegna is in fact two streams that join inside the built-up town. “Their confluence inside the urbanised area intensified the destruction,” Evelpidou said. Greek City Times also covered the death of a man found at Stegna beach during the same weather system.
According to the National Observatory of Athens, the Rhodes station recorded almost six times the usual October rainfall in two days. Researcher Alexandros Liaskos said the storm sat almost still over the north-east of the island for about four hours on the morning of 14 October.
Source: Kathimerini
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