Every day, including Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, a private laboratory takes 20 water samples from the municipality’s water supply network – ten in Artemida and ten in Spata – and measures the residual chlorine. Every month, it also carries out comprehensive microbiological and chemical analyses. Since July 2025, the Municipality of Spata–Artemida has paid €54,486.34 for this work. However, the results are not published. They are not available on the municipality’s website, and only the payment orders are posted on the ‘Diaugia’ transparency portal.
The contract expires on Monday 12 October. As of today, neither a new tender nor a further extension has been announced.
What is checked
The work is described in Study No. 156/2024 by the Municipality’s Department of Water Supply and Sewerage Works. It concerns the water that the Municipality purchases from EYDAP (the Athens water and sewerage company) and distributes via its own reservoirs and its own network. For this reason, testing is carried out at the reservoirs and at points in the network where the water is now the responsibility of the Municipality. The study provides for:
- 12 samples per month (6 at Artemida, 6 at Spata) for the basic parameters, and up to twice a month from June to September,
- a further 6 samples per year for comprehensive testing: metals such as lead, arsenic and mercury, pesticides, trihalomethanes, benzene and dozens of other substances,
- one sample each month from the Spata Health Centre for Pseudomonas and Legionella,
- a monthly inspection of the municipality’s two active boreholes, at the ‘Pousi Geri’ site in Spata and at the ‘Prifti’ site in Local Community 5 in Artemida,
- hexavalent chromium and radioactivity, with six samples per year for each,
- 20 daily chlorine samples, taken from points as far apart as possible within the network, with the results sent to the Hydraulics Department.
If contamination is suspected, the laboratory must take a sample immediately and begin testing within two hours. The same contract also covers testing of bathing waters along our coastline.
Who, how much, until when
The tender was announced on 18 December 2024 with a budget of 60,462.40 euros including VAT. The contractor is Eurofins Analytical Laboratories of Athens, with a contract signed on 12 June 2025 for a period of one year. From 31 July 2025 to 6 August 2026, the Municipality has issued 12 payment orders to the company, totalling €54,486.34.
The contract was due to expire on 11 June 2026. The Technical Department requested an extension on 5 June, as the funds allocated to the contract had not been fully utilised and because the population increases during the summer. The Municipal Council approved it unanimously on 30 June (Resolution 87/2026), almost three weeks after the expiry date, and the contract amendment was signed on 30 July. The extension is for four months, until 12 October.
The contract allows for an extension of up to six months, provided that the funds have not been exhausted. The Council may therefore extend it for a further two months. There is little time for a new contract: the previous tender process took almost six months from the announcement to the signing.
Rafina posts them every month
The neighbouring Municipality of Rafina–Pikermi works with the same laboratory and publishes the analysis reports on its website every month. On 2 October, it uploaded 16 reports for September from schools, sports centres, churches, a playground and the town hall. A resident of Drafi, for example, can see that in the sample taken from the tap in Ano Periptero, coliforms and E. coli were measured at less than 1 per 100 ml.
What the law says
Since 2023, the quality of drinking water has been regulated by Joint Ministerial Decision Δ1(δ)/ΓΠ No. 27829 (Government Gazette B 3525/25 May 2023), which transposed European Directive 2020/2184. Article 17, ‘Information to the public’, requires water suppliers to provide consumers with ‘adequate, up-to-date information’ about the water. At least once a year, and without anyone having to ask, they must inform every consumer about the quality of the water and its price per litre and per cubic metre, for example, along with the bill or via digital channels.
Nothing in the documents suggests there is a problem with the water. The issue is that the Council pays for the readings, but the results remain with the water supply department. Anyone wishing to see them can request them from the Council’s water supply department on 22940 86666.
Source: Municipality of Spata–Artemida, study 156/2024 and tender notice 934/53970/18-12-2024; Municipal Council decision 87/2026, Diafania 9 July 2026; payment orders to Eurofins, Diafania 31 July 2025–6 August 2026; Joint Ministerial Decision Δ1(δ)/ΓΠ No. 27829/2023; Municipality of Rafina–Pikermi, analyses for September 2026.
