Many Athenians might think so, and most of its harassed plumbers, but actually it derives from a German-American family name Ulen, an enterprising member of which got together with a Mr Monks and established the New York-based hydraulic engineering company Monks-Ulen early in the century.
Knowing a solid and responsible firm when they see one, Greek entrepreneurs recommended it to the Greek government when it set out to solve Athens’ chronic water shortage in the 1920s. Then most of the city had no running water and deliveries were made by tanker trucks.
Monks-Ulen did a good job and built the only marble-faced dam in the world at Marathon and ran the water in an elaborate set of pipes all over the Athenian plain. One of them broke the other day at Tavros which shows how sturdy they were – and how little maintained since.
Fifty some years after the completion of the Marathon Dam, when Athens had grown from one half to three millions during which time grass lawns became fashionable, the Mornos Dam was built far beyond Delphi and water was brought down through conduits to Lake Yliki in Boeotia, which served as feeder and reservoir.
In 1980 a new dam at Evinos beyond Mornos was planned and… now it is 1993 and it hasn’t rained much lately. On February 2, the matter seems to have been brought to the attention of the government. A cabinet meeting was held and Draconian measures announced. A complete ban was put on the use of oulen for flower gardens, lawns and swimming pools. Fines were to be placed on hosing down cars, pavements and terraces.
Amongst details of consumption in general those who use between 16 to 50 cubic metres per three months must reduce this by 20 percent. If bottom-line consumption is exceeded by over 15 percent, water is cut off from 5 to 15 days. Consumption of over 50 cubic metres per three months will be fined at 4000-drachma a cubic metre. Measures will go into effect for two years and illegalities may be made punishable by two to ten months in prison. Permissible consumption may be measured by last year’s use, so if you were away at some time then and used no water, it may be wise to go away again same time this year. The alternative to a two-week holiday on Kea may be a two-month term in Korydallos.
Matters got political (of course) when it was made public that the Prime Minister had paid a water bill of over a million drachmas last summer but had it reduced to 315,000 because there was leakage in two of his metres.
Minister of Environment and Public Works Achilleas Karamanlis said, “We must realize how critical the situation is. It is tragic,” he said, perhaps implying that this drought is an act of God rather than the folly of politicians. He insisted that the Evinos Project cannot be completed for two years. Certainly Athenians were not amused and took their protests into the streets.
What is so illuminating about the situation is that the water problem has been known for years, both in general outline and many of its possible solutions in detail. What might not have been thought of is that politicians would give out oulen free to farming districts all along the watercourses in Boeotia and Attica as a way of fishing for votes. What made the giveaway so irresponsible as well, is that these rural areas already had local supplies of their own in the form of springs and wells. But no sooner were these communities connected with the major network they abandoned their former sources and irrigated their fields with water meant for the city’s taps.
The simple truth is that during the Socialists’ eight years of ‘Ever Better Days’ no infrastructure to the water network was made, nor during Mr Tzannetakis’ Government of Catharsis, nor during Mr Zolotas’ Coalition, nor during the Restoration of New Democracy and certainly not in the last year during which the Greekness of Macedonia drowned out the Waterlessness of Athens.
So the matter is clearly not a question of one political party or another to be praised or blamed, but the questionable effectiveness of government as a whole.
A historical solution might suggest itself: In Italy during the late Middle Ages when Guelfs fought with Ghibellines in every city and no competent local government whatever could be found, they devised the Podesta System – that is, they just hired a government and Prime Minister from abroad to do the work.
There’s no doubt that Brussels would love to put together an effective government in Athens made up of a spectrum of nationalities and acceptable political parties. Then it could be hired out and brought in – just like Monks-Ulen was 67 years ago to solve the Athenian water problem, which they succeeded in doing as well as providing Greek with another pretty word.
