One of the most important components of any major city (any city for that matter) is the sewage system, mainly for reasons of health. I've seen signs and heard people (usually "papoudes") in Athens saying that you shouldn't flush toilet paper down the toilet. I (and everybody that ive ever asked) have always done it anyway and have never heard of anything bad happening (including at our houses in andros and athens). I'm aware that there are about 17km of old small pipes around the city centre. What I'm not sure of is how these pipes or any other pipes in Athens affect the ability of people to throw toilet paper down the toilet. Does anybody know?
Also, i was wondering if the pipes were ever made with lead - and if they have been replaced. (There are a few high tech water treatment plants, so i assume that the possibility of old lead pipes has been taken into account when judging the potability of the water.)
I was also wondering about the construction of the waste treatment plants on Psittalia - an island designated solely for waste treatment just off the coast of athens (connected to the sewage system through an underwater pipe).

Any info regarding any of this would be greatly appreciated. Here are some pics i got from the web:

(These pics, along with a lot of information on the sewage and water systems, can be found at http://www.eydap.gr/ )

Psittalia
http://www.eydap.gr/media/images/23XR.jpg

Galatsia Water Treatment Plant
http://www.eydap.gr/media/images/men_galatsi.jpg

Aspropyrgos Water Treatment Plant
http://www.eydap.gr/media/images/men_asprop.jpg

Water Meter Laboratory
http://www.eydap.gr/media/ergastirio_ydrom/maddalena_tb.jpg

I don't know any answers, but these are some amazing old pictures of the city eh:

http://www.eydap.gr/media/photo_gallery/black_white/22B_l.jpg

http://www.eydap.gr/media/photo_gallery/black_white/25B_l.jpg

http://www.eydap.gr/media/photo_gallery/black_white/34B_l.jpg

http://www.eydap.gr/media/photo_gallery/black_white/v31B_l.jpg

http://www.eydap.gr/media/photo_gallery/black_white/v21B_l.jpg

http://www.eydap.gr/media/photo_gallery/black_white/30B_l.jpg

http://www.eydap.gr/media/photo_gallery/black_white/v36B_l.jpg


The Greek work ethic :lol: :okay:

http://www.eydap.gr/media/photo_gallery/black_white/4B_l.jpg

lol Nice pics.
In Greece I always dont flush the paper down and AFAIK no one in my family there does, but they dont live in AThens. I do it just incase theres truth to that 'myth'.

Its really eww but Id rather do that than clog up my Theas toilet! :lol:

Like you said not flushing the toilet paper is really ewww
I really don't think that toilet paper clogs the toilets, I'm not sure though, I should ask the super... :D

I'm still wondering :D

If it dosnt, then why do all hotels and resturants have bins?
Sixenome just thinking about it! :(

Well it is...

I remember a chillout cafe-bar in Thessaloniki where when you enter the toilet, there is a 1x1m hall, on your left men's on your right women's, both(I think :D) are 80cm x 80cm and they have a large bin for paper... :( .

Oh, i've seen that in Russia also.

I've been in homes here with bins. :eek2: :shocked:

The city looks beautiful on that second picture!

http://www.eydap.gr/media/photo_gallery/black_white/4B_l.jpg

thanks i love that pic lol, i have a greek friend in school who always says they're lazy and stuff lol, i wanna show that pic to him and see what he thinks lol

i have a greek friend in school who always says they're lazy and stuff lol, i wanna show that pic to him and see what he thinks loldon't forget to let us know what he thought, we're dying to know

that was sarcastic wasnt it lol

that was sarcastic wasnt it lol


You guessed correctly. :sleepy:

http://www.eydap.gr/media/photo_gallery/black_white/4B_l.jpg

thanks i love that pic lol, i have a greek friend in school who always says they're lazy and stuff lol, i wanna show that pic to him and see what he thinks lol

There are Greeks in Albanian schools? :dunno:

i dont know why you gotta be sarcastic, w.e i tried visiting this place and mayb saying something nice once in a while, i wont respond anymore

no kostya, i never said i go to an Albanian school. I go to school in America.

It's ok my friend, relax, I think he was just joking...

i dont know why you gotta be sarcastic, w.e i tried visiting this place and mayb saying something nice once in a while, i wont respond anymore.
ok, bye.

Interesting thread.

i dont know why you gotta be sarcastic, w.e i tried visiting this place and mayb saying something nice once in a while, i wont respond anymore

no kostya, i never said i go to an Albanian school. I go to school in America.

oh, ok, judging from your "location" i thought you were in Tirana.

Thread " Water & Sewage Systems of Athens "

Κέντρο βιολογικού καθαρισμού -Νησίδα Ψυττάλεια

Wastewater treatment plant of Psyttalia

The Athens greater area treatment plant, located on uninhabited Psyttalia island at 2 km from the west coast of Piraeus is one of the largest in Europe..


http://www.oikologos.gr/images/technology/Psytalia.jpg

1983-1994 1st phase
1994-2004 2nd phase


The construction of the plant began in 1983, when it was decided to transfer and treat all the sewage of the greater Athens area on the island of Psittalia.

The plant treats all sewage produced in the Athens drainage basin, except the pre-mentioned quantity of sewage that is treated in Metamorfosi.

Athens’ sewage is initially pre-treated (screening, degridding) at the Akrokeramos facilities, and is subsequently directed, via an inverted siphon (underwater), to the facilities on the island of Psittalia, where it undergoes primary treatment. Afterwards, through an underwater disposal pipeline, it is expelled at a satisfactory depth and diffused into the Saronicos bay with an organic load reduced by 35-40%.

It is estimated that, after the completion of the Phase B works and the operation of the biological-grade treatment units (aeration tanks and final settlement), the organic load will be reduced by 95%, total nitrogen by 75% and total phosphorus by 25%. After the above, the Saronicos bay will gradually return to being a safe place for fishing and recreational activities for Attica residents. Various economic parameters that were adversely affected in the past by the uncontrolled disposal of sewage, will thus, gradually improve.

The plant’s sewage-treatment stages are as follows:

• Sewage screening and degridding (a procedure carried out at the Akrokeramos facilities)
• Primary sewage settlement (with an average removal rate of 63% for suspended solids and 38% for the organic load), sludge removal, pre-consolidation, as well as anaerobic sludge digestion, post-consolidation and dehydration (a procedure carried out on the island of Psittalia)
• Disposal of treated sewage into the sea via an underwater pipeline.
• Disposal of the dehydrated sludge at the Sanitary Land Fill of Ano Liosia.

The Psittalia Wastewater Treatment Plant treats daily with 750.000 m3 of sewage and has a nominal daily capacity of 1.000.000 m3.

In July 2001, on the island Psittalia, a Power Production Plant to utilize the biogas produced during treatment, began operation. This 7,4 MW - electrical power plant has benefited EYDAP in two ways: the wastewater treatment plant’s energy needs are completely covered, and any excessive energy is sold to the Hellenic Public Power Corporation.


First a small pic that shows the proximity of the islet with the port of Piraeus and the urban area of Athens.

http://www.qsl.net/sv2ael/sv2ael.files/faroi/pict/psitalia2.jpg

And two better aerial pics of the islet

http://www.ert.gr/aerialphoto/photos/big/031.jpg

http://www.ert.gr/aerialphoto/photos/big/030.jpg

And an abstract from a technical article :

http://www.wordsun.com/fgb64.htm (full article)


Athens, Greece, September 22, 2005 ---
The Psyttalia Wastewater Treatment Plant is Europe’s largest sewage treatment facility, and makes extensive use of Festo pneumatic valve actuators to provide intrinsically safe and maintenance-free operation. The plant originally discharged effluent to sea, but was upgraded to meet the EU’s Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive, in time for the Olympic Games last year(2004). The upgrade involved the addition of a large-scale biological treatment plant, comprising 12 fermentation tanks with a capacity of almost 300,000 cubic metres.

The treatment plant occupies almost the whole of the island of Psyttalia in the Saronic Gulf, just outside Athens’ harbour area of Piraeus. The plant handles the majority of Athens’ wastewater – amounting to about 1 million cubic metres a day, or 12 cubic metres a second – which is transferred to the island via nine huge Archimedes screw pumps. After treatment and dewatering, the waste sludge, amounting to about 800 tonnes per day, is shipped back to the mainland for disposal in landfill sites.

To ensure that the plant will operate reliably for many years, the construction companies in this joint venture (Themeliodomi, Aktor and Athena from Greece, Giovanni Putignano & Figli from Italy and Passavant Roediger Products from Germany), chose pneumatic automation technology.

According to George Lousis, the consortium’s mechanical engineer responsible for the construction of the plant, “It is vital that the actuators used to open and close the shut-off valves offer explosion protection, particularly in the area of the fermentation tanks, where the high-temperature sludge fermentation process generates gases such as methane and carbon dioxide. It is laborious and costly to configure electrical drives for operation in potentially explosive atmospheres.”

Nicholaos Zaminos, a system planner for the project, also points out that the long service life and overload tolerance of pneumatic drive technology are important factors. “Pneumatic drives are maintenance-free, and with a service life of more than a million operating cycles, will outlive any process valve. In this application, accumulated or dried material on the valves may make their breakaway torque much higher than normal. Pneumatic drives are ’overload-tolerant’, while electrical drives run up against torque limiters if required to deliver exceptionally high torque or force. With pneumatic drives, it is easy to increase the operating pressure and thus the force and torque generated.”

Phase B, providing for high quality dehydration of sewage, is complete. The trial phase of Phase B begins on June 1. Two power plants will also be built on Psyttaleia using imported natural gas and biogas produced by the sewage.

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g319/greecelightning/psyttaleia.jpg
Picture from http://www.eydap.gr

Article: http://www.citypress.gr/article.php?art=39226

:cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

poor island, they really flattened it!

I guess in Greece we can afford to sacrifice an island or two for the common good :lol:

And the beaches of these islands are still top quality! :lol:

The treatment plant on the island is truly impressive. The Island almost looks like it is artificial now... and not natural-made.

I remember that there was some problems about the waste sludge the Psytalia treatment plant produces. What has been done about it? I remember only the news reports about angry citizens who were protesting about it...

The thing with toilet paper is an urban legend. Toilet paper, as the name implies, IS MEANT TO GO DOWN THE TOILET!!! And not collected in bins that serve as bacteria culture dishes... My pet theory is that, as so many people came to Athens from the countryside in the post-war decades, they brought their toilet habits with them. It's understandable that some sewage systems in villages would have a small capacity and clog easily.
The truth is simply that no other paper apart from toilet paper should be flushed. Toilets are not meant for tampons, sanitary towels,newspapers encyclopaedias etc! :lol: But toilet paper is no collector's item...
My parents have lived in the same apartment since 1968 and always flushed toilet paper down the drain, with no problems...

Photo of Psyttaleia taken in Dec 2007:

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g319/greecelightning/P1013987_small.jpg

Fantazeste ayto to nisi me ouranoksistes? Psyttaleia ala Manhattan :)

......bre edw den exoyme ekei pou 8a prepe:lol:....ta xoume pai3ei...enan ourano3ysth parakalw kai grhgora!!!:nuts:

Oi simerinoi ellines politikoi den exoun orama gia tin xwra.

Psytalia has turned out to be a very impressive project :) I wonder, who is responsible for this? Who proposed for the first time this to be built?

"Worth every penny spent

The completion of the third and final phase of Attica's wastewater treatment plant on Psyttaleia has put an end to the sludge crisis that brought misery to nearby residents and threats of legal action."

http://www.athensnews.gr/data/D2008/D0314/1ng6b.jpg

http://www.athensnews.gr/data/D2008/D0314/1ng6c.jpg

http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.prnt_article?e=C&f=13278&t=01&m=A06&aa=1