Hydrousa project HORIZON 2020

Hydrousa project has started and Tinos Ecolodge is an important part of it. Hydrousa is a research project on water management and closing the water loops, funded by the EU through the HORIZON 2020. Head of the project is the National Technical University of Athens and we are 27 partners from all over Europe, including 3 Universities, and 3 Municipalities.

The project has as a goal to find and propose nature based solutions of collecting and managing the water in water-scarcity areas like the Greek islands and it will be implemented in 3 islands, Tinos, Mykonos and Lesvos. It will have 6 demonstration sites and one of them is Tinos Ecolodge.

The main targets of the project are:

• how to collect and store water
• how to treat and recycle used water for agriculture

At Tinos Ecolodge we will build a new cistern that will collect 50qm of water from the roofs of the nearby stables which will be restored, the little church and a newly built 60m2 Greenhouse. We will experiment with vapor condensation units that we will design especially for the islands and the specific climatic conditions. We will make a new reedbed filtration system, similar to the one we already have, and we will improve the existing one by adding UV filtration units so the treated water can be used for irrigation. There will be continuous monitoring of the quality of water inputs-outputs through a monitoring system that will be installed. We will expand our agricultural activities and try to produce more veggies for our costumers by adding a Greenhouse and we will cultivate 2ha from our plot to produce grapes, artichokes, capers and different herbs. All these irrigated through our new system of collecting and reusing the water.

The aim is to demonstrate how a small touristic unit can be self sufficient and sustainable in using our resources efficiently and add value by expanding its activities to other products like agriculture.

On Tinos there will be another demonstration site installed that will use the desalination plant water to produce fresh water, salt and irrigate a Greenhouse with tropical fruits and a mangrove ecosystem. On Mykonos there will be a roof water collection and a slow sand filtration system that will provide water for oregano production. In Lesvos an existing treatment system will be improved, new wetlands will be constructed and the treated water will be used for an agroforestry field and herbs cultivated for the creation of essential oils. For more information about the project please visit the website www.hydrousa.org