Crete in Peril: Anguish as Greek Island Is Sucked Dry by Progress

November 9, 2024

Crete, beloved by residents and visitors alike, is in deep peril. The problems of overtourism, infrastructure catastrophes, and climate change fundamentally threaten to degrade the birthplace of Western civilization.

By Phil Butler

Recent research and a mini-documentary reveal paradise being crushed beneath unsustainable practice. Crete, where the Minoans thrived for thousands of years, may become a deserted solar farm.

Since the 1960s, the Greek government has been marketing tourism with ever-increasing vigour and budgets. At first, the influx of tourism helped the people of Greece, especially the islands, where businesses sprung up like wildfire. As for Crete, the wildfire turned into a devastating inferno, ruining businesses and destroying the island’s culture, history, and unique natural environment.

Crete’s village life in peril

A couple of recent reports I’ve written about the situation reached documentary filmmaker Andy Burgess, founder of Faultline, a channel that tells human stories through geography.

Burgess’ mini-documentary focused on Sfendili Village, submerged when a water reservoir was built to serve Crete’s largest city (Heraklion). Burgess found citizens of the lost village who revealed the horrible stories of ruining their dreams, traditions, and the lives they intended to lead. As sad as the stories of Sfendili Village, they share commonality with dozens of traditional villages all over Crete.

Once Andy Burgess learned of the broader situation, he included many negative aspects others worry about in his latest short film. In our discussion, we discussed the nightmarish infrastructure situation in Western Crete.

A report I made concerning groups like Apokoronas SOS fighting just to get water and decent refuse collection resonated with him. The irony of the water situation of Crete is that the Island was once saturated with runoff from the high mountains and underground rivers. This previous report on Greek Reporter highlights many causes of the looming catastrophe.

What Crete and Cretans face, the destruction of their heritage and legacy, is a story laced with irony. For instance, the situation in Kokkino Chorio, where the famous film Zorba the Greek was filmed, has residents without water for hundreds of consecutive days.

If I had the space here, I could write an almost endless list of Cretan causes lost to the march of unsustainable progress. The system has allowed unbridled development all across the island. And there is no happy ending where the authentic Cretan lifestyle or the island’s pristine landscapes are concerned.

Engineering for dough

As the reservoir rapidly becomes a mud puddle with a ruined village at its center, officials draw funding from the EU and other sources using projects like Habitat II, LIFE, SAVE, THERMIE, Natura 2000, and many others.

The problem is not financial support for creating sustainability or even regenerative economies in Crete. The Island is gasping underneath parched soil for anyone in the decision-making process to prioritize basic needs.

As businesses dry up one by one on Heraklion’s pedestrian shopping streets, the tourism sector steams more cruise ships into the port here. And any retailer will tell you cruise passengers spend little or nothing.

The same situation holds for the countless alleged five-star resorts built end to end along Crete’s North shore. All-inclusive lodgings steal millions from the little local tavernas, the quaint shops, and a thousand restaurants all over the island. At a point in Burgess’ report, he throws his hands in the air as if he’s part of a Tourism commercial and exclaims [paraphrased]:

“We have so many people visiting Crete each year; do you know what we need? We need more five-star resorts with beach access. So, we should include showers on the beach, better laundry facilities, at least four restaurants, air conditioning, infinity pools everywhere, plush lawns, and even golf courses.”

Burgess also highlights how the tourism industry has taken precedence over every other business/revenue sector on the Island. One cruel irony is that the villagers who left their homes for tourism or retail jobs in the bigger cities since the 1960s are on the verge of poverty worse than the poorest olive grower faces in the headlands.

And that famous Cretan diet, primarily based on the traditional Cretan lifestyle, is being supplanted with fusion cuisine, sushi bars, and Italian restaurants at these hotels and across the city landscape.

Deserted agricultural heritage

As the traditional villages die out because only the aged tend to remain, any hope of salvaging legendary Cretan hospitality and tradition is drying up faster than the reservoirs.

A look at the agricultural industry, which now uses over 80% of Crete’s usable water resources, is even more alarming. Few farmers, or Cretans overall, realize that over 60% of Crete is now threatened by the process of desertification. Farmers are forced to pump the island dry to cultivate crops like olives, grapes for wine, and even the rare herbs that only grow here. This is a function of prices being held at rock bottom by corporate interests domestically and internationally.

Add to this the fact water is becoming more scarce, and a dire situation becomes a kind of apocalypse if you’re a Cretan. Sadly, the people here have long since lost hope of changing things, and few care about the long term. Subsistence is what Cretan life is now, even if you have means.

The political leadership and the leading business people of Crete have turned a blind eye to this whole problem. As Andy Burgess (and many others) suggest, tourism is prioritized above all else. Looking at the Apokoronas situation, I learned first-hand how the government earmarks EU funds for even a walking path through the municipality rather than a billion gallons of water flowing downhill from busted pipes.

The reader should take a few moments to look up places like Scalia, Drakos Village, Hrysopigi, Dyo Prini, Kalathiana, Aklada, Lousestro, and Moussi or simply Google “abandoned villages of Crete.”

Take the stories you find, correlate those to the touristic developments nearby, and then factor in Big Energy’s plans for the land where Europe’s first civilization began.

Check out the EU-funded project CRETE VALLEY, which “aims to transform Crete into a sustainable, decentralized energy system by 2028.” A viable conspiracy story can be derived from the notion of running villagers off to be replaced by photovoltaic farms and windmills. It’s not such a stretch, given what we see happening here.

Phil Butler is editor-in-chief of the Argophilia Travel News and a regular contributor for Greek Reporter.