VPNs INCLUDING NORDVPN do not offer SECURITY! You are not secure on PUBLIC NETWORKS a VPN DOES NOT SECURE YOU NOR YOUR DATA. This is a known fact in the industry. VPNs are good for getting around region blocked content and stuff but DO NOT SECURE YOU.
Im from Crete myself, having family that used to live in this village so it was beautiful to see you carry the story out in such a good way, raising awareness of the issues of tourism is so nice to see! There’s still so many stories left to covered in Crete and if you ever need help I’d love to be of assistance! Especially as this topic is so close to my heart
loved the video and meeting you! You broke the issue down perfectly, and your editing is top notch as well. What's interesting to me living in Crete, people can be very selfish or opportunistic but deep down are very fond of the community that they were raised.
20:15 this still is the image of the death of Crete. There are many more resorts like this to come in the next years. The construction companies, the architects, the civil engineers, are drunk from the money they earn. It's sick. We are doing the same mistake Spain did with Costa del sol. It's very sad...
Oh yes all these evil, bad, civil engineers, architects and construction companies that suddenly manifested on the island of Crete and ruined it... Spare me, please. The main culprits are the people that went from being barely literate sheepherders to multimillionaires because they owned a few acres by the sea. The people doing the shafting of their fellow citizens are usually from that place and this story is repeated in every place in Greece that goes heavy on tourism. The only difference in Crete is that it is large enough for the pie of the "taking advantage of tourists" industry cannot be more or less evenly distributed. There are places that all families get rich from tourism more or less to the point that they consider their children studying at a university to be a waste of time because why bother when you can make more money in a season than most people will ever make. The same issues exist there but they don't care as long as everyone can fleece the Scandinavians or Northern Europeans.
Όχι μόνο δεν μιλάνε, το αρνούνται κι όλας. Κάθε φορά που προσπαθώ να το φέρνει η συζήτηση με λένε woke, οικολόγο και γενικώς θεωρούν το νερό ως κάτι δεδομένο το οποίο θα εξακολουθήσει να τρέχει από την βρύση ανεξαρτήτως προβλήματος.
@microska2656 Εμένα με κράζουν επειδή είναι vegan (άσχετο με το θέμα του νερού αλλά σχετικό λόγω οικονομίας νερού τσεκαρέ το στο our world as statistics)... Και μου λένε ότι κάνω βιγκαν προπαγάνδα
ολος ο κοσμος και καθε μερα στις ειδησεις μιλανε για τη λειψηδρια και πως θα τη λυσουμε αλλα μαλλον η ενημερωση σου ειναι μονο απο βιντεακια απο αγγλουσ 20χρονους
@kostismachias Στα παπάρια τους η λειψυδρία όπως και τα έργα για τις πλημμύρες, δράσεις για την ακρίβεια και δράσεις για την σταθεροποίηση (ούτε καν μείωση!!) ενοικίων. Είδες πουθενά να παίζει για τα κρουαζιερόπλοια που δεν αφήνουν καν χρήμα γιατί είναι όλα τα expenses included μέσα στο πλοίο και πως δεν αντέχουν τα νησιά άλλο κόσμο και άλλο σκατό ; Αλλά όχι ... Εσύ μάλλον εννοείς τα 3-4 μη συστηματικά μέσα ενημέρωσης ανεξάρτητων δημοσιογράφων που γράφουν ένα άρθρο και το διαβάζουμε εμείς και εμείς και εμείς οι ίδιοι λέμε τι μπορεί να γίνει και τι όχι και φυσικά μένει η πολιτεία για άλλη μια φορά στην ατομική ευθύνη. Δες λίγο που ζήσεις και κατέβα να ψηφίσεις και μιας που είμαστε επί του θέματος αν έχεις πραγματικά τόση ενημέρωση γιατί δεν είσαι vegan ακόμα ; (Ο μοναδικός τρόπος ζωής που στο διατροφικό κομμάτι εξοικονομεί το μεγαλύτερο ποσοστό νερού, γης, ενέργειας κτλ αποδεδειγμένα από τα μεγαλύτερα ινστιτούτα περιβαντολλογίας και υπέροχα γραφικά μπορείς να δεις στο our world in data.
Φράγματα ειναι μια λύση αλλά δεν δουλεύει συνέχεια (με την πρώτη λειψυδρία είναι άχρηστα). Αφαλάτωσεις είναι η λύση παρόλο που είναι ακριβες. Εμείς εδώ στην Κύπρο φτάσαμε να έχουμε 8 ώρες τρεχούμενο νερό σε ένα 48ωρο πριν από 20 χρόνια.
I live in Herakleion yet never heard of this. Thanks for raising awareness and choosing to search more instead of helping those greedy luxury hotels. Kinda relieving to see tourists going to the dark side of the Crete and notice how the rest can enjoy their stay while locals have to deal with these or will have to soon
It is a difficult situation. Given the topography and resources of the country, it would be much more challenging to generate enough jobs to sustain the population without tourism. My family is from one of the poorest prefectures in Greece. I love it there. The city and countryside are beautiful. There are no hotels with infinity pools, no big golf resorts, and no water crisis. But my relatives there survive because so many of us live somewhere else and send money back or go for retirement. The government can and must find a way to make tourism more sustainable. It must start by charging a realistic price for excessive water consumption. Such a price could support better maintenance of the water infrastructure and drive the market to reduce wasteful consumption.
It’s such a well made documentary, very professional and well researched. I’m from France and my grand mother village in Dordogne as well as many other villages were submerged in the 50s for the construction of a dam that turned out to be unnecessary. They eventually emptied it and you can now see the remains of what used to be her home. It was heartbreaking for her. Thank you for bringing this unspoken subject to life.
same thing happened here in Portugal.. Entire villages flooded for a reservoir.. then in a draught last year my friend was able to visit his grandfathers house for the first time..
In Portugal, we had a similar village called aldeia da Luz of around 500 inhabitants, which was submerged. The government built a new village between 1998-2002 , 2 km from the original one, with all the modern amenities and in the mix of traditional and modern style. Was it a success? No. It is only kind move to the elderly, the young people would move out anyway, so today it has around 50% of the original population. It was particularly traumatic when they had to move the entire local cemetery. In the end what happened in aldeia da luz shows that even with the outmost care and respect for the locals, in the end there is not a perfect solution.
This was very interesting to watch! I Actually live in the village below the dam, Potamies. I regularly walk to the lake and enjoy the quiet. There are stairs near the dam you can take and walk to the water level. From time to time I also go to Sfendili itself, and it interests me to see the water level change every time. The dam project actually has another part to it. The tunnel from the Lasithi plateau to the lake. The Lasithi plateau used to be very prone to flooding, so there have been many works done in order to protect it from flooding, including a tunnel with water pipes which fill the lake.
Excellent. Kudos for discovering and bringing up a growing issue through a different lens. It has been shown time and time again that dams are an environmental disaster. This presents another angle to the issue.
There were fears that my village was also going to be drowned a few years ago. I think now the proposed damn is cancelled but having been through what it feels like to think that one day your home and land will disappear i don't even want to imagine what the people of sfendili feel like
This channel deserves to blow up. The quality and effort you put into your videos is absolutely mind boggling.. Regardless of all that i am so glad i stumbled upon your content. These videos are so damn good. *Have you ever seen pictures of that town that was intentionally flooded by a corrupt government and a mining company in Romania (i think it was in Romania but i could be wrong?) you should definitely check it out. It looks visually insane. There's a Submerged church, the water has crazy different colors due to the mine. It's crazy
This reminds me of several villages that were submerged underwater due to the construction of High Island Reservoir in Hong Kong during the 1970s. These included Lan Nai Wan Village and Sha Tsui Village, the government built a large housing estate nearby before relocating the former residents of those villages.
again, a really great video. thank you to you and the helpers for your effort and for putting this story on our maps! I know Greece has its struggles with water, arson and more. But from far away I clearly don't even know half of it.
there are really serious and dramatic repercussions to overtourism and unsustainable water consumption, but to most people here in Greece it’s subtle things that change, which sometimes shows the gravity of the issue. I’m from Athens, but my mom grew up in Crete and I go there every summer and visit my cousins and family that live there. My family actually has an olive grove, which isn’t maintained in a way that would produce enough to sell, but enough for all of us and family friends. So you have to understand, in my whole life my family hasn’t bought olive oil. Even now, studying in the Netherlands, I bring bottles of it with me because it’s much better than anything I can buy here and free, and I eat olives that my grandma has prepared specially (I actually really don’t like olives but for some reason these ones taste great which is weird). This summer though, my aunt and grandma were talking about how next year we might not get any oil, because there isn’t enough water, and for the first time in my LIFE, I have become aware of the cost of it.
I have roots from the nearby big village and strongly remember the drama going around when it was about to happen back in the 00s. Very interesting to hear the story through someone with a more distant relationship to the subject. It makes you reevaluate the emotional and practical aspect of it. Happy that you had the chance to make the video with the presence of a local. It would certainly would have felt as a lost chance in any other way. Funny that youtube suggested this video probably without having a hard connection of me and the place. Kinda creepy XD
This happened to a town in turkiye called Hasankeyf that was drowned to support the dam in the diyarbakir region, in late 2010s I believe. The town was a medieval trade post... maybe even earlier. I'd check but I'm on the shitter
Slight translation error at 22:10. “Thankfully we still have the cemetery […]”, the rest is good though. Beautiful video nonetheless. I appreciate the insight into this specific matter, one that hits close to home since a similar situation has happened near my place of residence with part of the village of Lower Kalentini (Κάτω Καλεντίνη) near Arta, Epirus which was submerged to create a reservoir.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if the villlagers could raise the money, say a GoFundMe, to rebuild their community and homes around the newly-built church? They would be near their former place, in community, and would be able to rebuild their lives of self-sustaining work, rather than be scattered throughout Crete...
⚠I would like to ask those who want to visit the village to be very careful, buildings are in bad condition. @AndyMBurgess, nice to meet you, I will be happy to see you again in Crete!
Hey so glad to see a video about a place so close to me! I am, not only from Crete, but from the village directly benefiting from the dam Αποσελεμη) that "drowned" Σφεντηλι, Ποταμιες! To be honest, if it wasnt for the dam, we wouldnt have any crops to grow, because the cost to bring water from other places, like the old wells or the river is either too expensive, or running out. For reference our village has already closed two of the main wells that run out of water and the river doesnt flow year round, only in some months of the year. By the way the dam has exposed the village because we havent had rain (i mean major rainfall) in the last one or two years
you can very obviusly see the water crisis just from the shade of some olive trees while driving. were there are people that cant water their plantations the trees arent green anymore but all kinds of diferent shades of green and brown
I'm not from crete but I am from a different Island in greece one of the problems is that all these hotel building pools even if they are just steps away from the sea and when people complain the ones that don't complain and the ones that want that drown out all the others. This is a big problem because it is raining less and less this year in the Island of sifnos it didn't rain that much and in the summer people were woried they wouldn't last the summer with the water they had.
Άσε τραγική η κατάσταση στη Σίφνο με τις πισίνες. Ακόμα χειρότερα όμως που έκαναν τα ξεροπηγαδα βόθρους και πήγαν τα λύματα στον υδροφόρο ορίζοντα. Το νερό αυτό θα έχει πανούκλα για 400 χρόνια πλέον.
im cretan from sitia.. tourism has cause huge problems.. we dont know how to do it,, this year we had biiiiiig problem with water.. still have.. thanks for shine a light on this.
The real problem is not Sfendyli, but that they spend 230 millions ( double than the 114 millions they said when they designed it) for a dam that is never filled .
If you want subtitles, UA-cam has them. Click on "cc". The subtitles you're referring to are hardcoded by the creator and they're small because hardcoded subtitles are annoying AF for many people, who usually prefer to watch without the distraction of text showing words they can hear, hence annoying AF. Thankfully they come and go.... which illustrates they're likely inspired by the current TickTock driven trend of using intermittent subtitles for emphasis....yet another way of understanding why many people find them annoying AF: they hijack the experience and force focus on the words. But yeah, for people who need them, it's a fundamental feature on yt thankfully.
Any Burgess an his team do an amazing job of calling attention to the often destructive forces of humankind's need to engineer everything. On Crete, the future is worse than uncertain, it's tenuous. The land here is critical to the ancient lifestyle that made Crete one of the world's most popular and interesting destinations. Now, the tradition, culture, and natural beauty of the island are threatened by the same corporate interests that contributed to situations like that of Sfendyli. Overtourism, and the ever encroaching problems created from big business' need to grow (in the traditional market sense), may soon destroy the essence of what Crete and the Cretans once represented. Or, as Andy suggests, the identity of a place with thousands of years of fascinating customs, history, and tradition will be no more. We cannot find the right solutions until we admit and understand the problems we have created. Many thanks to Andy for producing this story.
Great film very interesting , They did the same in the UK instead of maintaining Victorian reservoirs many where naturally spring fed that where every where ,every town had one or many after 40 =50-60 years they decided to restore many of the Victorian reservoirs that are everywhere,so no need to flood valleys after all ,The Victorians had a great understanding of water management
Thanks Andy - Greece and the rest of the world have a hell of a lot to learn about land and water management and getting rid of #CORRUPTION. This need never have happened, a big mistake.
Why is this such a big issue. This is such a small move and there are a lot bigger cases. Their village happened to be in a dam/reservoir perfect place. So, what?
Oh, come on!! Wherever dams are built, it usually has to do with valleys that are blocked. Valleys always have soil more fertile than surrounding areas . So you’ve never seen a dam with abandoned villages inside?? Never? Ive seen many. Quite all the dams Ive seen were like that.
The truth is, that reservoir didn't have to be necessary. If it wasn't for hyper-tourism, it wouldn't even have been a consideration in the first place. And when your agricultural requires a lot of irrigation, and hordes of water, it indicates the crops you are growing do not belong there and should not be grown, either, bundled with clear inefficiencies in how they run their agriculture. If they only grew native plants, trees and crops there, and used efficient forms of conducting their crop growing, did things like crop rotations and permaculture, they'd greatly increase their farming efficiency while greatly reducing the amount of water they need per crop and per acre. Old ways, bad habits, non native plants and hyper-fixation on one overall negatively impactful industry for your economy is what caused this to even become a problem and a thing. It easily could have been avoided.
Great video and really interesting to watch. At the same time, I would like to highlight some aspects that may need improvement in my view. First, even though as a Greek myself, I am fully aware of the shortcomings of the state and this story seems to be indeed one of these cases (either for not supporting properly the residents in their relocation or not finding alternatives), I feel that there is a lack of a counter-view in the video (from an official, someone from the tourism industry etc.) or at least some studies that estimate the impact of the project in the island (I don't think that the fact that Crete continues to suffer from water shortage says something, as it lacks the counterfactual, i.e. what would be the situation if there was no project). Second, I believe that there is a bit of an unjustified emphasis in the video on blaming over-tourism, while it constitutes less than 20% of the water usage (of course over-tourism is indeed a problem around the world, just doesn't seem to play a major role in this case, in comparison to water waste or irrigation).Again, I hope that this comment can be seen as a constructive feedback, as I believe in the potential of the channel
I have to contrast the treatment of the cypriot government when our biggest dam was built (Kourris dam). A new Alassa village was created with government money a kilometre away when the old Alassa was submerged.
In Romania ,we have a similar village but here is a chemical lake,that have many colors like purpel,orange,and more. If you want to go ,the city name is Geamana in Alba county,Transilvania,Romania.
You should make a video about the lost and submerged city of Ada Kaleh in Romania that was the northernmost outpost of Ottoman territory in the early 20th century!
Old villages are exactly what tourist want to see, and to sacrifice villages for tourism seems ironic. I've visited Crete a number of times in my life. It changed from an idyllic place to a tourist trap with a lot of ugly industrial agriculture to boot. Overcrowded streets and horrible stinky car traffic made the cities totally unattractive. The last time I was there, it had 9,000,000 tourists annually, thoroughly overrun is putting it mildly, but I heard that they wanted to double that number. Places like Knossos were trampled on already, and there will be nothing left of historical value if that many tourists actually come. After that invasion, they will most likely stay away, and the Cretans will probably do even more agriculture. The charm of the place is lost forever. I've decided not to go there any more.
I pass from there every single day.. when the water is up sfendyli is down.. and do to the rain problems we have in Crete , the dam has been empty almost ! So therefore you can see it
The big multinational hotels do not want to tell their tourist to have a 5 minute shower and have them not comeback next year. What do they care about the locals?!
There a similar story that occured in the village of callium in central greece... It was also submerged because of a dam that was created to provide water to athens
This is so sad. Stark parallels with Palestinians. Indigenous people displaced and made to suffer to satisfy greed of others. This story repeats so much on small or large scale
The Government could have easily assigned land just north of the high point and built new homes for all teh residents. Sounds like a lot of corruption was going on
Wouldn't it have been possible to just build a smaller reservoir that didn't engulf the village? Also, shouldn't the people that live there be the priority not tourists? Although it would be cool to visit. Couldn't they just stop making new resorts and stuff? Idk, how do desert peoples preserve their water? ✨️Sustainability✨️ Hopefully my questions aren't rude. I've never been there so I don't truly know what it's like. Also, I am very tired at the moment, lol. I have plans tomorrow so I should probably sleep. Ect
you could argue from a dispassionate perspective of how many people employed, wealth generated , tourism is a far more efficient use of water for each gallon of water, more good is created than agriculture Of course i'm pro Farmer , so just ignore what i said :)
Yeah..uproot a people from their homes and the only place they knew for generations and lived of. Just so the fancy tourists that come to crete for two weeks can enjoy their swimming pool... Funnily enough the same Greek government that was responsible for this now suffers from a significant local agrarian produce deficit, that soars the prices of any agrarian product, making the life of the average Greek Citizen even more unbearable, then it is already.
@@Anastas1ios not sure you read what i wrote. As you see from the Video , the main demand for Water in Crete is Agriculture not Tourism . I'm nore saying do away with farmin g, far from it. Yet the real problem is not tourism , which provides much needed jobs and revenue for greece
I don't think it's anyone's fault, despite stuff like this tourism has heavily helped Crete, and sadly some sacrifices were made, but ultimately the cretan population benefited from it
Typical case of NIMBY. Everyone wants tourism and the wealth it brings, everyone wants water, but nobody wants his back yard affected by the necessary infrastructure
This happened in Tennessee US back in the early 1900s. Whole communities drowned without a thought to the inhabitants. Development that doesn't actually serve the population should be harshly limited.
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VPNs INCLUDING NORDVPN do not offer SECURITY! You are not secure on PUBLIC NETWORKS a VPN DOES NOT SECURE YOU NOR YOUR DATA. This is a known fact in the industry. VPNs are good for getting around region blocked content and stuff but DO NOT SECURE YOU.
Im from Crete myself, having family that used to live in this village so it was beautiful to see you carry the story out in such a good way, raising awareness of the issues of tourism is so nice to see! There’s still so many stories left to covered in Crete and if you ever need help I’d love to be of assistance! Especially as this topic is so close to my heart
Πληρωσε τιποτα το κρατος για τις απαλλοτριώσεις;
loved the video and meeting you! You broke the issue down perfectly, and your editing is top notch as well. What's interesting to me living in Crete, people can be very selfish or opportunistic but deep down are very fond of the community that they were raised.
uxaristoume lia gia tin voitheia sou apo athina, euxaristoume pou dexneis se olous ous xenous tin gnomi ton palion katikvn
20:15 this still is the image of the death of Crete. There are many more resorts like this to come in the next years. The construction companies, the architects, the civil engineers, are drunk from the money they earn. It's sick. We are doing the same mistake Spain did with Costa del sol. It's very sad...
Oh yes all these evil, bad, civil engineers, architects and construction companies that suddenly manifested on the island of Crete and ruined it...
Spare me, please. The main culprits are the people that went from being barely literate sheepherders to multimillionaires because they owned a few acres by the sea.
The people doing the shafting of their fellow citizens are usually from that place and this story is repeated in every place in Greece that goes heavy on tourism. The only difference in Crete is that it is large enough for the pie of the "taking advantage of tourists" industry cannot be more or less evenly distributed.
There are places that all families get rich from tourism more or less to the point that they consider their children studying at a university to be a waste of time because why bother when you can make more money in a season than most people will ever make. The same issues exist there but they don't care as long as everyone can fleece the Scandinavians or Northern Europeans.
I am greek and nobody speaks about this issue (depletion of water) at all...
Όχι μόνο δεν μιλάνε, το αρνούνται κι όλας. Κάθε φορά που προσπαθώ να το φέρνει η συζήτηση με λένε woke, οικολόγο και γενικώς θεωρούν το νερό ως κάτι δεδομένο το οποίο θα εξακολουθήσει να τρέχει από την βρύση ανεξαρτήτως προβλήματος.
@microska2656
Εμένα με κράζουν επειδή είναι vegan (άσχετο με το θέμα του νερού αλλά σχετικό λόγω οικονομίας νερού τσεκαρέ το στο our world as statistics)... Και μου λένε ότι κάνω βιγκαν προπαγάνδα
ολος ο κοσμος και καθε μερα στις ειδησεις μιλανε για τη λειψηδρια και πως θα τη λυσουμε αλλα μαλλον η ενημερωση σου ειναι μονο απο βιντεακια απο αγγλουσ 20χρονους
@kostismachias
Στα παπάρια τους η λειψυδρία όπως και τα έργα για τις πλημμύρες, δράσεις για την ακρίβεια και δράσεις για την σταθεροποίηση (ούτε καν μείωση!!) ενοικίων.
Είδες πουθενά να παίζει για τα κρουαζιερόπλοια που δεν αφήνουν καν χρήμα γιατί είναι όλα τα expenses included μέσα στο πλοίο και πως δεν αντέχουν τα νησιά άλλο κόσμο και άλλο σκατό ;
Αλλά όχι ... Εσύ μάλλον εννοείς τα 3-4 μη συστηματικά μέσα ενημέρωσης ανεξάρτητων δημοσιογράφων που γράφουν ένα άρθρο και το διαβάζουμε εμείς και εμείς και εμείς οι ίδιοι λέμε τι μπορεί να γίνει και τι όχι και φυσικά μένει η πολιτεία για άλλη μια φορά στην ατομική ευθύνη.
Δες λίγο που ζήσεις και κατέβα να ψηφίσεις και μιας που είμαστε επί του θέματος αν έχεις πραγματικά τόση ενημέρωση γιατί δεν είσαι vegan ακόμα ; (Ο μοναδικός τρόπος ζωής που στο διατροφικό κομμάτι εξοικονομεί το μεγαλύτερο ποσοστό νερού, γης, ενέργειας κτλ αποδεδειγμένα από τα μεγαλύτερα ινστιτούτα περιβαντολλογίας και υπέροχα γραφικά μπορείς να δεις στο our world in data.
Φράγματα ειναι μια λύση αλλά δεν δουλεύει συνέχεια (με την πρώτη λειψυδρία είναι άχρηστα). Αφαλάτωσεις είναι η λύση παρόλο που είναι ακριβες.
Εμείς εδώ στην Κύπρο φτάσαμε να έχουμε 8 ώρες τρεχούμενο νερό σε ένα 48ωρο πριν από 20 χρόνια.
I live in Herakleion yet never heard of this. Thanks for raising awareness and choosing to search more instead of helping those greedy luxury hotels. Kinda relieving to see tourists going to the dark side of the Crete and notice how the rest can enjoy their stay while locals have to deal with these or will have to soon
As someone from mainland Greece, thank you so kuch for bringing awareness to subjects like yheae that we would never hear otherwise
It is a difficult situation. Given the topography and resources of the country, it would be much more challenging to generate enough jobs to sustain the population without tourism. My family is from one of the poorest prefectures in Greece. I love it there. The city and countryside are beautiful. There are no hotels with infinity pools, no big golf resorts, and no water crisis. But my relatives there survive because so many of us live somewhere else and send money back or go for retirement. The government can and must find a way to make tourism more sustainable. It must start by charging a realistic price for excessive water consumption. Such a price could support better maintenance of the water infrastructure and drive the market to reduce wasteful consumption.
It’s such a well made documentary, very professional and well researched. I’m from France and my grand mother village in Dordogne as well as many other villages were submerged in the 50s for the construction of a dam that turned out to be unnecessary. They eventually emptied it and you can now see the remains of what used to be her home. It was heartbreaking for her. Thank you for bringing this unspoken subject to life.
same thing happened here in Portugal.. Entire villages flooded for a reservoir.. then in a draught last year my friend was able to visit his grandfathers house for the first time..
In Portugal, we had a similar village called aldeia da Luz of around 500 inhabitants, which was submerged. The government built a new village between 1998-2002 , 2 km from the original one, with all the modern amenities and in the mix of traditional and modern style. Was it a success? No. It is only kind move to the elderly, the young people would move out anyway, so today it has around 50% of the original population.
It was particularly traumatic when they had to move the entire local cemetery.
In the end what happened in aldeia da luz shows that even with the outmost care and respect for the locals, in the end there is not a perfect solution.
I hate these hypocritic hotel corporations. They have signs of "do not open the sink to save water" then do things like this.
There are a few other villages like this throughout Greece and there are a few that managed to fight off similar situations like this as well.
This was very interesting to watch! I Actually live in the village below the dam, Potamies. I regularly walk to the lake and enjoy the quiet. There are stairs near the dam you can take and walk to the water level. From time to time I also go to Sfendili itself, and it interests me to see the water level change every time.
The dam project actually has another part to it. The tunnel from the Lasithi plateau to the lake. The Lasithi plateau used to be very prone to flooding, so there have been many works done in order to protect it from flooding, including a tunnel with water pipes which fill the lake.
Excellent. Kudos for discovering and bringing up a growing issue through a different lens. It has been shown time and time again that dams are an environmental disaster. This presents another angle to the issue.
There were fears that my village was also going to be drowned a few years ago. I think now the proposed damn is cancelled but having been through what it feels like to think that one day your home and land will disappear i don't even want to imagine what the people of sfendili feel like
This channel deserves to blow up. The quality and effort you put into your videos is absolutely mind boggling.. Regardless of all that i am so glad i stumbled upon your content. These videos are so damn good. *Have you ever seen pictures of that town that was intentionally flooded by a corrupt government and a mining company in Romania (i think it was in Romania but i could be wrong?) you should definitely check it out. It looks visually insane. There's a Submerged church, the water has crazy different colors due to the mine. It's crazy
Thanks for the support Ben! We are actually flying there on Monday, stay tuned!
Such a good video! I'm Greek but I never new the history of that village.Thank you:)
Amazing video and production quality! Greetings from Greece!
It seems dangerous that they left the buildings standing. Once submerged several times, no one can guarantee their structural integrity
It was supposed to stay submerged, but drought keeps bringing it to the surface.
Your content is top quality, my friend! Thoroughly enjoying my time on your channel. Peace
This reminds me of several villages that were submerged underwater due to the construction of High Island Reservoir in Hong Kong during the 1970s. These included Lan Nai Wan Village and Sha Tsui Village, the government built a large housing estate nearby before relocating the former residents of those villages.
Ι didn't know about the Σφενδίλι village. So good video and so informative. Thank you.
again, a really great video. thank you to you and the helpers for your effort and for putting this story on our maps! I know Greece has its struggles with water, arson and more. But from far away I clearly don't even know half of it.
there are really serious and dramatic repercussions to overtourism and unsustainable water consumption, but to most people here in Greece it’s subtle things that change, which sometimes shows the gravity of the issue. I’m from Athens, but my mom grew up in Crete and I go there every summer and visit my cousins and family that live there.
My family actually has an olive grove, which isn’t maintained in a way that would produce enough to sell, but enough for all of us and family friends. So you have to understand, in my whole life my family hasn’t bought olive oil. Even now, studying in the Netherlands, I bring bottles of it with me because it’s much better than anything I can buy here and free, and I eat olives that my grandma has prepared specially (I actually really don’t like olives but for some reason these ones taste great which is weird). This summer though, my aunt and grandma were talking about how next year we might not get any oil, because there isn’t enough water, and for the first time in my LIFE, I have become aware of the cost of it.
This deserves way more views than the 9k it has right now!
I have roots from the nearby big village and strongly remember the drama going around when it was about to happen back in the 00s. Very interesting to hear the story through someone with a more distant relationship to the subject. It makes you reevaluate the emotional and practical aspect of it. Happy that you had the chance to make the video with the presence of a local. It would certainly would have felt as a lost chance in any other way.
Funny that youtube suggested this video probably without having a hard connection of me and the place. Kinda creepy XD
This happened to a town in turkiye called Hasankeyf that was drowned to support the dam in the diyarbakir region, in late 2010s I believe. The town was a medieval trade post... maybe even earlier. I'd check but I'm on the shitter
Slight translation error at 22:10.
“Thankfully we still have the cemetery […]”, the rest is good though. Beautiful video nonetheless. I appreciate the insight into this specific matter, one that hits close to home since a similar situation has happened near my place of residence with part of the village of Lower Kalentini (Κάτω Καλεντίνη) near Arta, Epirus which was submerged to create a reservoir.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if the villlagers could raise the money, say a GoFundMe, to rebuild their community and homes around the newly-built church? They would be near their former place, in community, and would be able to rebuild their lives of self-sustaining work, rather than be scattered throughout Crete...
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As a greek man I'm very disappointed in our governments that throughout the years failed to bring the prosperity that they promised
another great video
Great work! Nice documentary
⚠I would like to ask those who want to visit the village to be very careful, buildings are in bad condition.
@AndyMBurgess, nice to meet you, I will be happy to see you again in Crete!
I am from Northern Greece and never heard of this story before!
Thank you for reporting on this!
Deserves more views. Great journalism! 👋
Hey so glad to see a video about a place so close to me! I am, not only from Crete, but from the village directly benefiting from the dam Αποσελεμη) that "drowned" Σφεντηλι, Ποταμιες! To be honest, if it wasnt for the dam, we wouldnt have any crops to grow, because the cost to bring water from other places, like the old wells or the river is either too expensive, or running out. For reference our village has already closed two of the main wells that run out of water and the river doesnt flow year round, only in some months of the year.
By the way the dam has exposed the village because we havent had rain (i mean major rainfall) in the last one or two years
good editing🙌
you can very obviusly see the water crisis just from the shade of some olive trees while driving. were there are people that cant water their plantations the trees arent green anymore but all kinds of diferent shades of green and brown
Thank you for showing the real face of our government. At the end none of them really care about matters like these.
I'm not from crete but I am from a different Island in greece one of the problems is that all these hotel building pools even if they are just steps away from the sea and when people complain the ones that don't complain and the ones that want that drown out all the others. This is a big problem because it is raining less and less this year in the Island of sifnos it didn't rain that much and in the summer people were woried they wouldn't last the summer with the water they had.
Άσε τραγική η κατάσταση στη Σίφνο με τις πισίνες. Ακόμα χειρότερα όμως που έκαναν τα ξεροπηγαδα βόθρους και πήγαν τα λύματα στον υδροφόρο ορίζοντα. Το νερό αυτό θα έχει πανούκλα για 400 χρόνια πλέον.
im cretan from sitia.. tourism has cause huge problems.. we dont know how to do it,, this year we had biiiiiig problem with water.. still have.. thanks for shine a light on this.
Love the format ❤
Building hotels in coastal areas is bad. Never ends well.
The real problem is not Sfendyli, but that they spend 230 millions ( double than the 114 millions they said when they designed it) for a dam that is never filled .
Ωραίο έργο το φράγμα Αποσελέμη αλλά η Κρήτη έχει ξερά καλοκαίρια, κρίμα
Κλασική περίπτωση βλάβης, θα νόμιζε κανείς ότι με τον διπλασιασμό του αρχικου μπάτζετ οι κάτοικοι θα επαιρναν και δίκαιες αποζημιώσεις
See aldeia da Luz , Alqueva, Portugal.
In this case it was done correctly and the hole town was placed nearby
Amazing storytelling of this tragedy. If I had to find one area of opportunity, I would say the subtitles could be a bit bigger. Thanks for the film!
If you want subtitles, UA-cam has them. Click on "cc". The subtitles you're referring to are hardcoded by the creator and they're small because hardcoded subtitles are annoying AF for many people, who usually prefer to watch without the distraction of text showing words they can hear, hence annoying AF. Thankfully they come and go.... which illustrates they're likely inspired by the current TickTock driven trend of using intermittent subtitles for emphasis....yet another way of understanding why many people find them annoying AF: they hijack the experience and force focus on the words. But yeah, for people who need them, it's a fundamental feature on yt thankfully.
Any Burgess an his team do an amazing job of calling attention to the often destructive forces of humankind's need to engineer everything. On Crete, the future is worse than uncertain, it's tenuous. The land here is critical to the ancient lifestyle that made Crete one of the world's most popular and interesting destinations. Now, the tradition, culture, and natural beauty of the island are threatened by the same corporate interests that contributed to situations like that of Sfendyli. Overtourism, and the ever encroaching problems created from big business' need to grow (in the traditional market sense), may soon destroy the essence of what Crete and the Cretans once represented. Or, as Andy suggests, the identity of a place with thousands of years of fascinating customs, history, and tradition will be no more. We cannot find the right solutions until we admit and understand the problems we have created. Many thanks to Andy for producing this story.
Oo yay I've been looking forward to this video!!
You could visit Granadilla in Spain
Same issue as in Greece
I want to live in a tiny community that Sfendili used to be; Its so sad that it was just casted aside and forgotten by the Greek government.
That’s Greek government for you. If you know the history you will know there’s an old reservoir from a long time ago.
I was in Turkey to Hasankeyf and witnessed a very similar situation, 3 years ago.
Great film very interesting , They did the same in the UK instead of maintaining Victorian reservoirs many where naturally spring fed that where every where ,every town had one or many after 40 =50-60 years they decided to restore many of the Victorian reservoirs that are everywhere,so no need to flood valleys after all ,The Victorians had a great understanding of water management
Thanks Andy - Greece and the rest of the world have a hell of a lot to learn about land and water management and getting rid of #CORRUPTION. This need never have happened, a big mistake.
Why is this such a big issue. This is such a small move and there are a lot bigger cases. Their village happened to be in a dam/reservoir perfect place. So, what?
11:24 These are all written in Hungarian. How unbelievably proud am I... wow.
Great story,thank you
Oh, come on!! Wherever dams are built, it usually has to do with valleys that are blocked. Valleys always have soil more fertile than surrounding areas . So you’ve never seen a dam with abandoned villages inside?? Never? Ive seen many. Quite all the dams Ive seen were like that.
The truth is, that reservoir didn't have to be necessary. If it wasn't for hyper-tourism, it wouldn't even have been a consideration in the first place. And when your agricultural requires a lot of irrigation, and hordes of water, it indicates the crops you are growing do not belong there and should not be grown, either, bundled with clear inefficiencies in how they run their agriculture. If they only grew native plants, trees and crops there, and used efficient forms of conducting their crop growing, did things like crop rotations and permaculture, they'd greatly increase their farming efficiency while greatly reducing the amount of water they need per crop and per acre. Old ways, bad habits, non native plants and hyper-fixation on one overall negatively impactful industry for your economy is what caused this to even become a problem and a thing. It easily could have been avoided.
I live in Crete a few kilometres away from sfendyli I've never heard of that
Great video and really interesting to watch. At the same time, I would like to highlight some aspects that may need improvement in my view. First, even though as a Greek myself, I am fully aware of the shortcomings of the state and this story seems to be indeed one of these cases (either for not supporting properly the residents in their relocation or not finding alternatives), I feel that there is a lack of a counter-view in the video (from an official, someone from the tourism industry etc.) or at least some studies that estimate the impact of the project in the island (I don't think that the fact that Crete continues to suffer from water shortage says something, as it lacks the counterfactual, i.e. what would be the situation if there was no project). Second, I believe that there is a bit of an unjustified emphasis in the video on blaming over-tourism, while it constitutes less than 20% of the water usage (of course over-tourism is indeed a problem around the world, just doesn't seem to play a major role in this case, in comparison to water waste or irrigation).Again, I hope that this comment can be seen as a constructive feedback, as I believe in the potential of the channel
I have to contrast the treatment of the cypriot government when our biggest dam was built (Kourris dam).
A new Alassa village was created with government money a kilometre away when the old Alassa was submerged.
In Romania ,we have a similar village but here is a chemical lake,that have many colors like purpel,orange,and more.
If you want to go ,the city name is Geamana in Alba county,Transilvania,Romania.
We were there last Friday 👀 Keep an eye out for that video early next year.
greeks are very adorable people
You should make a video about the lost and submerged city of Ada Kaleh in Romania that was the northernmost outpost of Ottoman territory in the early 20th century!
Would be interesting to discuss whether reverse osmosis running on solar PV could be a solution.
Can u please make the subtitles bigger🙏.
Δεν ήξερα τίποτα μέχρι τώρα (I didn't know anything until now)
Just a constructive comment: your subtitles are too small and are hard to read on my S24 Ultra (so it must be really small on a normal phone)
You should do about the floods of Thessaly in greece it's a very sensitive topic
It doesn't look impossible to just rebuild the village a bit higher in the terrain. But I guess the loss of farmland would have doomed them anyway.
10:20 why didn't they just keep the lake less deep,like this would have been perfect depth to keep people living there.
Old villages are exactly what tourist want to see, and to sacrifice villages for tourism seems ironic.
I've visited Crete a number of times in my life. It changed from an idyllic place to a tourist trap with a lot of ugly industrial agriculture to boot. Overcrowded streets and horrible stinky car traffic made the cities totally unattractive.
The last time I was there, it had 9,000,000 tourists annually, thoroughly overrun is putting it mildly, but I heard that they wanted to double that number. Places like Knossos were trampled on already, and there will be nothing left of historical value if that many tourists actually come. After that invasion, they will most likely stay away, and the Cretans will probably do even more agriculture.
The charm of the place is lost forever. I've decided not to go there any more.
You have to wonder how polluted the water is from all those buildings. How do they process the water they use from the reservoir?
Centrifuge, and active filters.
I pass from there every single day.. when the water is up sfendyli is down.. and do to the rain problems we have in Crete , the dam has been empty almost ! So therefore you can see it
Its rael I'm from Creete and many for our teachers until this day say : we have a water shortug. Or something like that 😢😢😢
The big multinational hotels do not want to tell their tourist to have a 5 minute shower and have them not comeback next year.
What do they care about the locals?!
There a similar story that occured in the village of callium in central greece... It was also submerged because of a dam that was created to provide water to athens
This is so sad. Stark parallels with Palestinians. Indigenous people displaced and made to suffer to satisfy greed of others. This story repeats so much on small or large scale
The Government could have easily assigned land just north of the high point and built new homes for all teh residents. Sounds like a lot of corruption was going on
Wouldn't it have been possible to just build a smaller reservoir that didn't engulf the village?
Also, shouldn't the people that live there be the priority not tourists? Although it would be cool to visit. Couldn't they just stop making new resorts and stuff?
Idk, how do desert peoples preserve their water?
✨️Sustainability✨️
Hopefully my questions aren't rude. I've never been there so I don't truly know what it's like. Also, I am very tired at the moment, lol. I have plans tomorrow so I should probably sleep.
Ect
Interesting, I've never heard abt Sfendyli before in the Greek media.
you could argue from a dispassionate perspective of how many people employed, wealth generated , tourism is a far more efficient use of water
for each gallon of water, more good is created than agriculture
Of course i'm pro Farmer , so just ignore what i said :)
Yeah..uproot a people from their homes and the only place they knew for generations and lived of. Just so the fancy tourists that come to crete for two weeks can enjoy their swimming pool... Funnily enough the same Greek government that was responsible for this now suffers from a significant local agrarian produce deficit, that soars the prices of any agrarian product, making the life of the average Greek Citizen even more unbearable, then it is already.
@@Anastas1ios not sure you read what i wrote.
As you see from the Video , the main demand for Water in Crete is Agriculture not Tourism . I'm nore saying do away with farmin g, far from it. Yet the real problem is not tourism , which provides much needed jobs and revenue for greece
Lassithi plateau in Crete historically a lake drained by Venetians.
Can't sink it thanks to the shortage of rainfall. I hope we will not end up as a desert land.
There is the same thing that happened in Cyprus
I'm greek and I didn't know that
ΕΙΝΑΙ ΘΛΙΒΕΡΟ, ΙΣΩΣ ΕΠΡΕΠΕ ΝΑ ΚΤΙΣΟΥΝ ΕΝΑ ΝΕΟ ΣΦΕΝΤΙΛΙ, ΠΙΟ ΨΗΛΑ, ΣΤΗΝ ΚΟΡΥΦΗ ΤΟΥ ΛΟΦΟΥ.
I don't think it's anyone's fault, despite stuff like this tourism has heavily helped Crete, and sadly some sacrifices were made, but ultimately the cretan population benefited from it
Typical case of NIMBY. Everyone wants tourism and the wealth it brings, everyone wants water, but nobody wants his back yard affected by the necessary infrastructure
Ok crazy but in grecopolish 16:20
couldn't they of built a wall around it?
if knew earlier about ur research i would had helped you to come in contact much faster and sooner
normal business for soviet affected countries (although Greece not one of them)
This happened in Tennessee US back in the early 1900s. Whole communities drowned without a thought to the inhabitants. Development that doesn't actually serve the population should be harshly limited.
Tourism. This is the reason and yes you are part of the problem. From a local
I was there too man am greek
11:24 Ohh yes, the ancient hungarian symbol of "FASZ". It can be found all over ther world on the most ancient of artifacts!😄