Explosive council debate about water management!

The head-on confrontation over the fate of the Water Management Authority was not ultimately avoided during yesterday’s Central Corfu municipal council meeting. Mayor Stefanos Poulimenos and the president of DIADEYAK, Achilleas Mazis, stated that they were not informed about the upcoming legislative developments on the matter and insisted on the proposal to dissolve the inter-municipal enterprise and establish a new Municipal Enterprise within the boundaries of the new Municipality.

Ydraiou's counter-move sparked the debate. Referring to her role as a member of the Central Union of Municipalities (KEDE), she mentioned the discussion of the bill on water management, which has already been sent and is being discussed within KEDE. Moreover, she added that the draft law, enriched with the recommendations of the municipalities and the Central Union, will be presented at the KEDE conference from November 7-9.

Poulimenos: "There is no bill!"

While the mayor stated in his speech that he suspects that if a "prefectural" Management Authority is legislated, it will be an executive structure at a higher level than the autonomous DEYA (Centre, North, South), his predecessor accused him of being at least uninformed, as the new Water Management Authorities will have exclusive administrative responsibilities, and in this case, the Municipality of Paxos will also be included.

Furthermore, the former mayor claimed that the new legislative provision would bring the promised "dowry" of around €250 million, which must be disbursed by the end of the year.

The mayor then escalated the situation, accusing Meropi Ydraiou of failing to inform both the Municipality and DIADEYAK, as she should have, and pursuing her own political agenda from the position to which Corfu’s local administration had appointed her in the Infrastructure & Networks Committee of KEDE.

GIORGOS KATSAITIS