Island hill lost for access to waste plant
A biological waste-processing plant on Tinos has proved to be a mixed blessing. When the municipality of Exomvourgos decided to install an environmentally sound waste-processing plant, it also managed to destroy the largest hill on the island for an access road to the plant, causing untold damage to the environment. The waste-processing center, which will implement a pilot program of the Goulandris Foundation, is based on the self-regulating processes of active soil systems. The center will be constructed in Livadi, Kato Meri. There has been no opposition from locals, most of whom realize that the new plant will not harm the area. It will be some time before the plant is built, according to a statement by the mayor, but just a few weeks ago, a contractor, under orders from the municipality, began building a road from the villages of Kymi and Perastra to the projected site of the plant, without a permit or approval from the forestry service. By the time local residents had become aware of what was happening and complained to the police, the contractor had almost completed the road, uprooting old oak trees, destroying centuries-old stone walls, and dumping rubble over the traditional cobblestone road built in the 14th century to join Kymi and Perastra. Forestry service officials immediately started legal proceedings against the contractor, and work stopped – at least temporarily – after the police intervened. But the harm had already been done. Old stone walls were ruined, so that the first rains will wash away large amounts of soil from the mountain. The dry-stone walls are largely responsible for the fertility of the soil, because they retain water and keep soil nutrients from washing away. And no one on the island knows how to build them anymore. The art of making dry-stone walls has been lost with the passage of time. And the oak trees will not be replanted since they have been buried in rubble. What worries the islanders most of all is that settlements have been created out of nothing in just this fashion before on the islands. Such roads often encroach illegally on forested areas and help carve out building plots. They are used, apart for the purpose for which they were made, by builders to put up houses in remote areas that are not included in official town plans. This is all the more the case when the area the road goes through and ends up in is sheltered from the wind and has a spectacular view.
