at a glance
Following our work on Zero Drop in Schimatari, we returned to the program for a second campaign. This time in Aeghion, where Coca-Cola's AVRA plant has been part of the local community for 37 years. We identified three people whose relationship with water tells the story of the entire city: a quality control manager who tests every drop that goes into an AVRA bottle and wants the same standard at home; a café owner who remembers pouring bottled water into his espresso machine when old pipes burst; and a technical director who tracks hidden leaks through a network built in the 1960s, in a seismically active region.
Nikos's Story
Nikos Efstathiou runs a family café on the main square of Aeghion. Coffee is 98% water, if the water is poor, the best blend in the world won't save it. He remembers when burst pipes forced his team to load bottled water into the espresso machine just to keep serving. The city's network was over half a century old.
Now, with aging pipelines replaced by modern infrastructure, the disruptions have stopped. For Nikos, the intervention is measured in something specific: a reliable tap and a better cup of coffee, every morning.
Dionysia's Story
Dionysia Schina is the Quality Control Manager at the AVRA plant in Aeghion. Every day, she tests the water drawn from boreholes along the Selinountas river before it goes into a bottle. She knows what clean water requires. Constant monitoring, physicochemical and microbiological analysis, seasonal pressure on supply.
As a resident and a mother, Dionysia holds the city's tap water to the same standard. For her, the upgrade of the local network is personal: the same water she protects at the plant should reach every home in Aeghion without compromise.
Panagiotis's Story
Panagiotis Nikolopoulos is the Technical Director of DEYA Aigialeia, the local water utility. He manages supply from 8 rivers, pumped at significant energy cost. He also manages a network built in the 1960s with old pipes, rigid material in a seismically active region. Telemetry systems identified hidden leaks along Nikolaou Plastira Street, where the main supply line runs. Water was being lost underground before reaching a tap. The replacement of that section with third-generation polyethylene pipes resolved the chronic pressure drops, improved water quality for surrounding households, and stopped the waste of resources the city was paying for but never using.
