In Argos, the distribution of drinking water has become a revealing indicator of the tensions running throughout the Argolid region: between aging infrastructure, degraded water quality, and governance conflicts, access to water remains precarious for a significant portion of the population. Tap water is often salty, whether it comes from the canal or groundwater. In Argos, as in Nafplio, the authorities acknowledge that the resources mobilized as emergency supplies are themselves degraded, with excessively high levels of chloride and sodium in several sources used for urban water supply. In practice, this forces many residents to turn to bottled water, transported by truck from northern Greece, while the public distribution system struggles to guarantee a stable drinking water supply.
In Argos and Nafplio, the backup water supply remains contested, as the distributed water is not suitable for consumption. In Myloi, the Lerna spring is tapped to obtain fresh water; however, abrupt climate variations damage the infrastructure. Prolonged periods of drought cause the karst recharge to dry up, and heavy rainfall cannot be fully captured. In winter, the pumping station loses 80% of its usable fresh water. The Greek government has launched modernization programs and secured European funding, but these efforts come after years of underinvestment. In Argos, as elsewhere in the region, residents clearly see that piecemeal repairs are insufficient to make up for the scale of the backlog. In the villages of northern Greece, the same problem takes a different form: the complete lack of pipes forces residents to rely on private pumps, often shared between families and neighbors, while drinking water is delivered by truck or purchased in bottles. This water is soft, because it is drawn from much deeper underground, but it must be treated for consumption, and these farmers' groups prefer bottled water to achieving complete independence from the system. The plain is currently paralyzed by the scale of the land redevelopment. Farmers are demanding changes, the TOEV (Technical and Economic Development Agency) wants a clear plan and swift decisions, while the Greek government is currently content to simply observe the damage.