Crete is facing a severe water shortage problem due to the extreme heat and drought, especially during the summer. However, as Phil Butler reports, the phenomenon cannot be simply attributed to the drought. Central and local governments are responsible for mismanaging the problem.
By Phil Butler
Kokkino Chorio, the Cretan village where Zorba the Greek was filmed, is teetering on the brink of becoming another of Crete’s many ghost towns. The looming threats of climate change, drought, mismanagement of infrastructure and development are pushing this once idyllic region of Greece towards a disaster.
The influx of new villas and tourists is a contributing factor, but the lack of necessities like water and sanitation is the real ticking time bomb. This is not just a cautionary tale for the rest of Crete but a pressing call for immediate action, given the issues of overtourism and unsustainable development.
Crete’s disasters on water management
Experts from the University of Crete’s Museum of Natural History sounded the alarm about the situation in Kokkino Chorio months ago. Our recent investigation conducted a few weeks ago, revealed the same resource and infrastructure mismanagement that endangers the entire island.
During our visit to Kokkino Chorio and the surrounding villages of the Apokoronas municipality, we witnessed numerous infrastructure-related disasters firsthand. But more importantly, we heard the stories of the residents bearing the brunt of this crisis, living in a region plagued by acute resource mismanagement problems.
At the heart of the matter is an overdevelopment catastrophe that has left hundreds, if not thousands, of people in dire straits.
Nick Cavros, one of the locals impacted by the situation, drew our attention to the crisis in which he and others were caught. Dozens of locals have officially voiced their concerns, and Cavros is doing everything he can to address water outages, garbage piles, and other issues.
He created a Facebook channel called “Apokoronas SOS” to provide a platform for those affected to voice their concerns. A comment on the forum encapsulates the fundamental problem there:
“We have no water here in Kokkino Chorio and the tank is empty. Does anyone know anything about this problem? It’s urgent now, we can’t even flush the toilets.”
Meanwhile, in my efforts to seek information and answers from Mayor Koukianakis, I have yet to receive any response to the email questions his office requested.
However, a week after I emailed those pertinent questions, his office issued a statement on Apokoronas Life about a €1.8 million project on the eastern side (opposite) of the municipality, where the large, all-inclusive hotels are (in Georgiopolis). This is a drilling/ supply project to send water to an unused reservoir high up in Vamos. That project does not, however, address the situation on the north and western slopes of mountainous Apokoronas.
Once it seemed clear the mayor had no intention of responding to my queries or those of citizens, a group of affected municipality citizens shared emails they’d written to Koukianakis. In one, a property owner detailed dates of no water supply beginning in March of this year and continuing until now—22 days in July and 23 days in June when temperatures reached 40 degrees or more.
Cavros told me one municipality employee said that, on condition of anonymity, they receive upwards of 30 complaints per day of water leaks. When I read these emails, I immediately thought about the elderly lady in a local village who had no internet or water. All this is taking place despite programs like Habitat II, LIFE, SAVE, THERMIE, and Natura 2000, which supposedly help villages with issues like:
- Mismanagement of shared resources
- Increasing pollution due to overtourism
- Climate change impacts
- The Improper development of traditional and natural landscapes
To add insult to injury, the municipality’s head-in-the-sand attitude is reflected in criticism of Apokoronas SOS and other channels. The municipality’s mayor, Charalambos Koukianakis, recently told attendees of a council meeting (translated to English).
“Social media and other media, as well as the political parties opposing the mayor, have been misled by overblown reporting.”
Rivers of Waste
On a visit to the area, I witnessed at least a dozen significant water main leaks flooding the area’s road system. It’s important to note that an ordinary small water main leak will flow 648,000 gallons (2,452,947 litres) in one month. Most of the leaks we witnessed were more significant than an ¼ inch hole or seal leak would cause.
We also took note of the maze of above-ground water manifolds with branches headed off by the roadsides to various areas.
The images provided will give the reader some idea of how things are not working on Kazantzakis’ beloved island. The rivers of water flowing down from Kokkino Chorio could fill 10,000 swimming pools. At the moment this report is published extreme water shortages affect the Municipality of Viannos, the Municipality of Festos/Mesara, the Municipality of Archana Asterousia and Gavdos Island.
The first and perhaps biggest problem threatening Apokoronas is the Greek government and its leveraged bureaucracy. The fact that the hills surrounding Kokkino Chorio are now dotted with million-euro villas equipped with wonderful swimming pools means there is yet to be a plan for sustainable or regenerative development there.
I am told that the local government requests approval of building permits from Athens and that those are usually rubber-stamped by government officials who have never travelled or even studied the Crete region.
The process is onerous for several reasons, not the least because this region has had to solve water problems since Venetian times or before.
Media outlets, academia, and key hydrologists have been calling for emergency measures to address these problems for years now. But every media report on the subject reflects only the recognition of the problems.
As for the government’s Vamos water tank solution for Eastern Apokoronas, imagine how many leaks there would be on the Western slopes near Kokkino Chorio if additional pressure from an elevated reservoir were applied! The pumps from the Vyreses wells would be running 24/7.
Water shortage in Crete and lack of accountability
In Greek, the closest word to accountability is ευθύνη, which means responsibility – which is a different concept. So, rampant development, while ignoring the rights of homeowners and residents to essential resources, borders on the criminal in many places, but transparency has nothing to do with leadership in Greece.
Sadly, Brussels has already funded and assisted several institutions and projects with jurisdiction to address the problems in Kokkino Chorio and other Crete villages.
All this is a matter of public record, as is Crete Region’s Governor Stavros Arnaoutakis’ seeming to prioritize walking paths (€238K) and road building (€850K) ahead of water and wastewater treatment issues (€148K) in the municipality.
Given this ongoing water nightmare, I cannot imagine engineers signing off on requirements like waste treatment, fire hazards, and other requirements pertinent to issuing building permits; still, the swimming pools are under excavation, and driveways are being cut (we waited in line watching an excavating machine during our visit).
What’s astonishing is the funding (prioritization) under the EU’s Horizon Europe of something known as the “Chameleon Project” (€6 million) to create stealth drones to help Apokoronas shepherds keep track of the daily activities of their goats and sheep.
I find it funny and ludicrous that when Nikos Kazantzakis wrote Zorba the Greek in the 1940s, shepherds and ordinary Cretans did not need high-tech solutions. They simply used logic and perseverance, which are in short supply.
