Dear Editor:

In response to the front page article by Niki Yiamalaki in the June edition of The Khronicles, where her last word is “conserve,” I would like to highlight areas of extreme water wastage, animal habitat destruction and landscape desecration.

To the back of Pano Gouves is a small road leading into a track, on which is housed a small water pumping station. From this station runs a large-bore pipe which I am informed is a pressure relief run off.

From June 4 to 7, this pipe was venting water at excess pressure day and night (the Demos Gouves was informed) spilling hundreds of thousands, if not millions of litres of water down the track (picture attached). This is not a one-off occurrence; it happens regularly, as I walk this way twice daily and it makes the track impassable because of swamp-like conditions. The only person to benefit from this is the one who owns the olive grove where the water cascades into!

On to the next subject, but still under the banner of “conservation.” A little further down the same track there used to be a cave which was home to a colony of bats. It was wonderful to watch them leaving in the twilight of an evening on their incessant search for insects and the like. Now, because someone is building a house above the cave and tonnes of soil have been bulldozed over the embankment completely blocking any access into the cave (picture attached), these creatures were condemned to a death through starvation and probably suffocation in their sealed tomb! I thought it was illegal to kill bats!!

Onto another subject under the same title. A little further down the same track, the hillside (picture attached) has been bulldozed out for who knows what? Is it possible that in this day and age people can just take it upon themselves to destroy the landscape without any fear of retribution from the authorities? I think in this prefecture the answer is “yes!” Surely the Demos should be monitoring these things.

I moved to Crete 20 years ago from Canada and have watched the changes closely; all I have seen is the ability of local authorities and informed inhabitants going ahead with construction and the like to the detriment of our environment. Once again, surely something must be done to combat this.

Check it out for yourselves and take it to the people responsible for this before it's too late, we only have one chance with this world and this beautiful island is included in that world!

I hope this message will instigate some changes.

Hugh Mammoth