The European Investment Bank on Thursday said it was loaning Greece 150 million euros ($166 million) for flood protection projects after two deadly emergencies in the last two years.

The EIB said the loan, part of an overall 355-million-euro scheme, was its largest ever support for new investment to protect homes and businesses in the greater Athens area, Thessaloniki and the Peloponnese.

In November 2017, 23 people died in a flash flood in Mandra, on the outskirts of the capital. In July, seven people, most of them tourists, died in a fierce storm that ripped through beachfronts in Halkidiki, one of Greece's top tourist resorts.

"The EIB is pleased to support this impressive new initiative to strengthen flood defences and protection measures across the country through the 150-million-euro loan confirmed today," the bank's vice president Andrew McDowell said after talks in Athens.

The EIB said the initiative will support ten flood protection projects over the next four years, including seven in Attica, two in Thessaloniki and one in the Peloponnese.

These include works to heighten river embankments, deepen river channels, and improve storm water drainage.

Since 2000, more than 16,000 people have been directly impacted by flooding that has caused damage of over a billion euros to economic activity in Greece, the EIB said.

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