"The total cost of repairing the damage caused by storms Daniel and Elias will exceed three billion euros," he said during a visit to Thessaly, the central Greek region devastated by the floods last September. The repair of roads, the railway network and schools alone will cost 1.4 billion euros, the minister added. "The road network will be rebuilt better than before," the Greek prime minister promised, specifying that the rehabilitation of the railway network will be completed by the end of 2025. The floods, which killed 17 people, also destroyed roads and bridges and killed tens of thousands of farm animals. Some of the reconstruction projects under consideration have been criticized by environmental groups, notably the project proposed by HVA, a Dutch company advising the Greek government. Organizations such as Greenpeace, WWF, the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature and the Hellenic Ornithological Society have denounced that these projects favor the construction of "old-fashioned" dams, instead of the ecological management of rivers advocated by the European Union (EU). On Thursday, these organizations criticized the proposals to dredge the rivers, arguing that removing obstacles would make the water run even faster. They also fear that the reconstruction of infrastructure will revive decades-old projects, such as the diversion of the Achelous River in western Greece, which has been rejected several times by the administrative courts. In a press release sent to the French news agency AFP, HVA responds to critics that its approach is based on scientific data. The company emphasizes that alternative solutions have been studied under various EU initiatives. But, to date, "knowledge is insufficient" to determine whether these solutions can be applied to projects of the size that will be needed in the Thessaly region. Read Also: Migrations. Three children die in a shipwreck off the coast of Greece (Portuguese version)