1
00:00:21,998 --> 00:00:23,449
What water is?

2
00:00:26,029 --> 00:00:27,298
Water is everything.

3
00:00:31,294 --> 00:00:33,276
What water is?
It comes just after oxygen.

4
00:00:35,398 --> 00:00:36,357
This is water.

5
00:00:40,006 --> 00:00:42,122
Water is life.

6
00:00:45,886 --> 00:00:48,217
Water is power!

7
00:00:54,710 --> 00:00:56,937
-What is water?
-It's cold!

8
00:01:03,012 --> 00:01:07,866
<i>75% of the Blue Planet of our solar
system, our Earth, is water.</i>

9
00:01:08,948 --> 00:01:13,308
<i>70-90% of a human body is also made of water.</i>

10
00:01:14,959 --> 00:01:17,852
<i>Fresh water is the most precious water...</i>

11
00:01:18,156 --> 00:01:20,961
<i>but it is just 3% of the total
water available on Earth.</i>

12
00:01:21,396 --> 00:01:24,219
<i>Only a third of that 3%
is directly available.</i>

13
00:01:25,109 --> 00:01:28,336
Water is not being destroyed
and recreated.

14
00:01:31,614 --> 00:01:34,008
We may consume most water...

15
00:01:35,835 --> 00:01:39,693
and even overconsume,
especially in developed countries...

16
00:01:41,318 --> 00:01:47,730
but the same quantity returns
to nature in the form of waste.

17
00:01:48,578 --> 00:01:51,746
<i>So water is eternal,
it is ancient.</i>

18
00:01:52,351 --> 00:01:54,686
<i>Sotiris Tsiouris, Chemistry
and Environment Professor, Thessaloniki</i>

19
00:01:55,021 --> 00:02:02,282
Sure. H2O is an inorganic compound.
It is not like carbon.

20
00:02:03,799 --> 00:02:06,276
We are going to run out of oil
at some point.

21
00:02:06,524 --> 00:02:11,798
When it is being burnt,
it turns to carbon dioxide.

22
00:02:16,490 --> 00:02:20,891
Water state changes,
it doesn't turn into something else.

23
00:02:24,809 --> 00:02:29,576
<i>Sovereign debt is used to blackmail
governments into privatizing blue gold.</i>

24
00:02:33,038 --> 00:02:36,590
<i>In summer 2013,
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras...</i>

25
00:02:36,952 --> 00:02:41,140
<i>discussed with Nestle representatives
on new investments in Greece.</i>

26
00:02:42,665 --> 00:02:48,738
<i>Nestle CEO has said that the idea
that water is a common good is radical.</i>

27
00:03:00,427 --> 00:03:01,484
How?

28
00:03:01,713 --> 00:03:03,207
When we say water is a basic good...

29
00:03:03,428 --> 00:03:08,253
we mean that each and every human
should have the possibility to drink water.

30
00:03:08,699 --> 00:03:10,423
Alexis Benos,
Medical School Professor, Thessaloniki

31
00:03:11,026 --> 00:03:15,658
So there should be no constraints
to water supply.

32
00:03:16,595 --> 00:03:19,724
You can't say that it should
be given at a price, a high price...

33
00:03:19,924 --> 00:03:24,553
because you exclude
an important part of the population...

34
00:03:25,148 --> 00:03:29,423
which in the past resided
in the poor South...

35
00:03:30,837 --> 00:03:34,846
but now they are in our country too,
with all that poverty and unemployment.

36
00:03:36,616 --> 00:03:42,608
WAteRdrops

37
00:03:55,241 --> 00:03:57,946
The first step towards privatization
was made in 2001.

38
00:03:58,328 --> 00:04:03,681
Thessaloniki Water Company (EYATH) entered
the stock market like other public benefit companies...

39
00:04:03,918 --> 00:04:05,960
...in order
to raise some capital.

40
00:04:07,260 --> 00:04:09,663
Until a week ago it had
a reserve of 42 million Euros.

41
00:04:10,484 --> 00:04:13,670
Giorgos Archontopoulos,
EYATH Workers Union President

42
00:04:14,093 --> 00:04:17,580
Last week the law that arranged the state's debt
to EYATH added another 13 million to its reserves.

43
00:04:18,211 --> 00:04:22,355
We're talking about 55 million
of hot money, no bonds or loans.

44
00:04:23,207 --> 00:04:26,460
It has no loans, it owes nobody,
it is not subsidized by the state...

45
00:04:26,754 --> 00:04:28,892
and it has 20 million Euros
net profit per year.

46
00:04:30,250 --> 00:04:31,394
<i>Why is it being sold?</i>

47
00:04:32,727 --> 00:04:34,111
Because it is a fillet.

48
00:04:34,296 --> 00:04:36,296
Nikos Papadakis,
EYATH President

49
00:04:36,300 --> 00:04:39,850
You don't ask the butcher for two kilos of bones.
You want meat.

50
00:04:39,972 --> 00:04:41,292
I think that we shouldn't sell fillets.

51
00:04:41,550 --> 00:04:43,867
We shouldn't sell the goose
that lays golden eggs.

52
00:04:44,483 --> 00:04:47,618
The buyer will get his money back
in two years time.

53
00:04:48,019 --> 00:04:50,189
Why shouldn't this money go
to a publicly owned company forever?

54
00:04:51,988 --> 00:04:55,169
What do we sell?
Assets that can be sold.

55
00:04:55,739 --> 00:04:57,980
We're in a bankruptcy situation.

56
00:04:58,768 --> 00:05:03,090
The memorandum was designed by
those who lent money to us...

57
00:05:03,453 --> 00:05:05,315
to prevent us from collapsing.

58
00:05:06,027 --> 00:05:08,208
The money expected from
the company being sold...

59
00:05:08,701 --> 00:05:13,660
is a drop
in the ocean of debt.

60
00:05:15,971 --> 00:05:19,709
We've lowered the costs
but there have been extra abridgements.

61
00:05:20,072 --> 00:05:23,102
You have to take into account
that wages were lowered by 35%.

62
00:05:23,759 --> 00:05:26,273
Our workforce has been diminished.

63
00:05:27,141 --> 00:05:31,788
We should get serious and act
in order to take things in our hands.

64
00:05:32,142 --> 00:05:38,249
We have to proceed to a privatization.
It is a sacred case.

65
00:05:42,938 --> 00:05:46,375
A large part of EYATH has already
been privatized.

66
00:05:46,762 --> 00:05:50,218
Most company sections
have been given out to contractors...

67
00:05:50,898 --> 00:05:52,459
or they collaborate with contractors.

68
00:05:53,651 --> 00:05:56,276
<i>Most contracts are given to Aktor company...</i>

69
00:05:56,786 --> 00:06:01,163
<i>which is also a potential buyer
along with French multinational SUEZ.</i>

70
00:06:02,590 --> 00:06:09,376
Aktor already has these contracts,
both in Athens and Thessaloniki.

71
00:06:10,358 --> 00:06:12,968
In Athens' Water and Sewage Company
it's more serious.

72
00:06:13,265 --> 00:06:17,299
They extended the sewage treatment
factory contract for five years.

73
00:06:19,566 --> 00:06:22,038
This competition concluded
just a few days ago.

74
00:06:22,838 --> 00:06:26,360
They also have contracts with us.

75
00:06:26,700 --> 00:06:34,027
I don't think it's wrong for Aktor
or any private contractor to have them.

76
00:06:34,847 --> 00:06:39,769
<i>Dimitris Koutras, president of Aktor
talked to us on his company's participation...</i>

77
00:06:40,028 --> 00:06:44,061
<i>in the EYATH competition,
without consenting to appear on camera.</i>

78
00:06:45,536 --> 00:06:48,853
In Thessaloniki we have 150 people
working.

79
00:06:49,593 --> 00:06:53,727
If EYATH is privatized,
we should leave.

80
00:06:58,539 --> 00:07:02,933
We care about our business
and our people, shouldn't we?

81
00:07:03,167 --> 00:07:07,655
So we participate in a scheme
with a really wealthy company.

82
00:07:07,957 --> 00:07:10,763
We don't have enough money
to buy it ourselves.

83
00:07:11,052 --> 00:07:13,698
Don't think that we go for
maximum profit.

84
00:07:13,989 --> 00:07:15,854
We are just trying to survive.

85
00:07:17,293 --> 00:07:23,359
I would support a cooperation
with a municipal company.

86
00:07:27,113 --> 00:07:33,018
The competition is for
water management...

87
00:07:33,388 --> 00:07:34,535
and sewage management.

88
00:07:34,775 --> 00:07:39,303
Is sewage a holy gift?
Is it a public good?

89
00:07:40,593 --> 00:07:42,761
They're selling the use of water.

90
00:07:43,029 --> 00:07:47,881
The private company will earn
money from water consumption.

91
00:07:47,948 --> 00:07:50,205
Giannis Krestenitis, Hydraylics
and Environment Professor, Thessaloniki

92
00:07:50,543 --> 00:07:54,062
The water system maintenance
and extension...

93
00:07:56,771 --> 00:07:59,849
stays with the Greek state.

94
00:08:00,696 --> 00:08:02,874
So we're going to pay for it...

95
00:08:03,126 --> 00:08:05,412
while the company will only
have profits from water sales...

96
00:08:05,807 --> 00:08:10,716
which can be huge.

97
00:08:12,054 --> 00:08:13,971
This is stupid!

98
00:08:14,383 --> 00:08:17,099
The fixed assets,
the dam stays with you...

99
00:08:17,507 --> 00:08:24,216
the water stays with you
and the company buys it.

100
00:08:25,996 --> 00:08:30,645
I have this volume,
I sell it for that price.

101
00:08:31,014 --> 00:08:35,379
We take it from the refinery
and manage it from there.

102
00:08:36,198 --> 00:08:41,781
In cases where companies were
privatized in Europe and elsewhere...

103
00:08:42,660 --> 00:08:45,454
the water prices surged.

104
00:08:45,801 --> 00:08:54,702
In some extreme cases they were
8 times higher than before privatization.

105
00:08:55,810 --> 00:09:01,652
In many cases there has been
a degradation of water quality.

106
00:09:02,559 --> 00:09:07,063
Germs were found in the water.

107
00:09:07,812 --> 00:09:11,425
How will the citizens of
Thessaloniki benefit...

108
00:09:11,630 --> 00:09:13,923
from the sale of EYATH?

109
00:09:16,056 --> 00:09:19,968
They won't benefit,
they will lose.

110
00:09:21,146 --> 00:09:24,016
Depending on the offer given
for the..., it shall...

111
00:09:26,928 --> 00:09:32,817
But I believe they will have
better control over the services...

112
00:09:33,059 --> 00:09:35,846
because state control is easily
imposed on a private entity...

113
00:09:36,205 --> 00:09:40,459
than on another state entity.

114
00:09:41,675 --> 00:09:45,444
We, as Aktor,
are completely indifferent...

115
00:09:45,696 --> 00:09:49,553
if Thessaloniki or Athens water
companies are privatized or not.

116
00:09:49,757 --> 00:09:53,179
In the case they're privatized,
we will be there...

117
00:09:53,518 --> 00:09:57,951
because we don't want to lose
this contract for our people.

118
00:09:58,712 --> 00:10:02,705
This is it. We will be there,
either it's privatized or not.

119
00:10:06,039 --> 00:10:09,400
<i>EYATH privatization
has some unseen aspects.</i>

120
00:10:11,777 --> 00:10:14,190
We asked the Hellenic Republic
Asset Development Fund (HRADF)...

121
00:10:14,594 --> 00:10:18,726
is they knew that every shop
in Thessaloniki...

122
00:10:19,042 --> 00:10:20,958
from the smallest one
to the big industries...

123
00:10:21,138 --> 00:10:22,584
has to seek a license from EYATH
for its sewage...

124
00:10:22,955 --> 00:10:26,802
and they said they knew nothing
about it.

125
00:10:27,747 --> 00:10:31,286
All city development will
be in the hands of a private company.

126
00:10:31,592 --> 00:10:33,998
It's not only that the cost
for the license may rise...

127
00:10:34,340 --> 00:10:37,159
but it's up to them to decide
if you'll get a license...

128
00:10:37,501 --> 00:10:39,300
for an industry, a business, a shop.

129
00:10:39,494 --> 00:10:41,326
All these are given out
to the private company.

130
00:10:41,821 --> 00:10:44,578
<i>The biggest partner of Aktor is Suez...</i>

131
00:10:44,984 --> 00:10:49,353
<i>the second bigger company in the world
in water and sewage treatment business.</i>

132
00:10:50,439 --> 00:10:54,854
<i>Suez is also in the energy business
via Gas de France Suez...</i>

133
00:10:55,481 --> 00:10:58,093
<i>who runs the first private natural
gas facility in Thiva, Greece...</i>

134
00:10:58,430 --> 00:11:00,106
<i>along with Greek partner TERNA.</i>

135
00:11:00,691 --> 00:11:04,199
<i>TERNA is also a candidate
in the EYATH competition.</i>

136
00:11:05,724 --> 00:11:12,743
<i>It's not unusual to see water
multinationals to do energy business.</i>

137
00:11:14,516 --> 00:11:19,703
<i>This is the only clear mention
of water in the Memorandum.</i>

138
00:11:19,703 --> 00:11:22,597
<i>A law should be introduced to have
water resources management...</i>

139
00:11:22,937 --> 00:11:24,830
<i>turned over to an independent entity.</i>

140
00:11:46,861 --> 00:11:51,033
<i>Climate change is the reason
renewable energy projects...</i>

141
00:11:51,417 --> 00:11:53,828
<i>are pushed all over Greece.</i>

142
00:11:55,158 --> 00:11:57,148
<i>Now companies ask for water...</i>

143
00:11:57,692 --> 00:12:01,783
<i>which is considered an energy reserve
to develop hybrid stations.</i>

144
00:12:04,880 --> 00:12:07,702
Hybrid systems are
a system of projects.

145
00:12:08,265 --> 00:12:10,653
Vana Sfakianaki, Architect
Network against RE Industries

146
00:12:10,972 --> 00:12:15,686
Usually there are two tanks,
like well-known lake reservoirs...

147
00:12:16,123 --> 00:12:18,724
which are situated
in different heights...

148
00:12:19,232 --> 00:12:23,053
so as to be used as
a hydroelectric project.

149
00:12:23,430 --> 00:12:27,964
Water falls from the upper
to the lower reservoir...

150
00:12:28,364 --> 00:12:30,379
in order to produce
electric power...

151
00:12:30,657 --> 00:12:36,367
and then it returns to the upper
by the use of normal power grid.

152
00:12:37,252 --> 00:12:41,865
It's important to note that
the return is powered by the grid.

153
00:12:42,171 --> 00:12:44,729
There's always an interdependency
of technologies.

154
00:12:45,361 --> 00:12:50,127
These two reservoirs
is one part of the project.

155
00:12:50,444 --> 00:12:56,982
Usually these investments
include one or more wind farms...

156
00:12:57,378 --> 00:13:03,140
situated in various places
and connected to the power grid.

157
00:13:06,161 --> 00:13:09,318
The grid is fed by all kinds of
power technologies...

158
00:13:09,724 --> 00:13:12,923
from normal power factories too.

159
00:13:13,258 --> 00:13:15,108
This project is made for them.

160
00:13:16,399 --> 00:13:20,341
<i>Current power factories that use
oil, coal or natural gas...</i>

161
00:13:20,741 --> 00:13:24,515
<i>work around the clock to provide
stability to the power grid.</i>

162
00:13:24,767 --> 00:13:27,616
<i>Renewable energy companies are being paid
even when they don't offer power...</i>

163
00:13:28,032 --> 00:13:30,718
<i>by the tax money of
an energy consumption tax...</i>

164
00:13:31,028 --> 00:13:33,641
<i>which recently was judged
as unconstitutional.</i>

165
00:13:35,006 --> 00:13:38,557
Some renewable energy technologies
need water.

166
00:13:38,927 --> 00:13:41,928
These are the cases of hybrid
and solar thermal technologies...

167
00:13:42,246 --> 00:13:45,428
which demand water coming from bores.

168
00:13:46,744 --> 00:13:49,590
<i>The solar thermal parks are developed
on hundreds of acres...</i>

169
00:13:49,953 --> 00:13:51,463
<i>and require thousands of tons of water...</i>

170
00:13:51,672 --> 00:13:53,798
<i>to wash the mirrors and for
the refrigeration system.</i>

171
00:13:55,041 --> 00:14:00,125
These industries require
constant water flow.

172
00:14:00,364 --> 00:14:05,728
They are not closed systems that
can reuse a certain quantity of water.

173
00:14:07,032 --> 00:14:09,156
Kostis Diamianakis, Farmer
Environmental Microbiology PhD

174
00:14:09,400 --> 00:14:13,992
For example, one of the solar thermal
stations that have been licensed...

175
00:14:14,265 --> 00:14:19,411
in the Sitia area, asks for a minimum
water supply by the municipality...

176
00:14:19,731 --> 00:14:23,983
of 110,000 cubic meters of water
per year.

177
00:14:25,886 --> 00:14:29,459
The power factories that are proposed
for the Sitia municipality area...

178
00:14:29,937 --> 00:14:36,094
will use bores for their water supply...

179
00:14:36,623 --> 00:14:39,171
which means bores in depth
of hundreds of meters...

180
00:14:39,488 --> 00:14:42,909
into the aquifer of one of Europe's
driest areas.

181
00:14:44,978 --> 00:14:48,910
<i>Often, public infrastructure like dams
is given out to private entities...</i>

182
00:14:49,229 --> 00:14:51,832
<i>in order to be used
as water reservoirs.</i>

183
00:14:53,775 --> 00:14:57,673
There's a perception that water
reaching the sea is lost water.

184
00:14:58,824 --> 00:15:03,070
It is argued by people involved
in water utilization...

185
00:15:03,477 --> 00:15:06,528
for energy, irrigation or water supply.

186
00:15:06,984 --> 00:15:08,920
Giannis Krestenitis, Hydraylics
and Environment Professor, Thessaloniki

187
00:15:09,252 --> 00:15:10,810
This is obviously wrong.

188
00:15:11,096 --> 00:15:12,760
Water is not lost when
it reaches the sea...

189
00:15:12,960 --> 00:15:15,506
because it is needed
for sea life.

190
00:15:16,247 --> 00:15:21,964
It balances sea water both
physically and chemically...

191
00:15:22,383 --> 00:15:26,109
especially regarding salt level
and outfalls.

192
00:15:26,590 --> 00:15:27,621
If there were no outfalls...

193
00:15:28,054 --> 00:15:36,109
many sea animals wouldn't have
a place to reproduce themselves.

194
00:15:38,311 --> 00:15:44,255
Due to the lack of fresh water
in outfalls and deltas...

195
00:15:44,948 --> 00:15:48,153
and the usual overpumping of water
due to agriculture or habitation...

196
00:15:48,625 --> 00:15:51,745
sea water enters and salts
underground water reserves.

197
00:15:52,188 --> 00:15:56,204
Sotiris Tsiouris, Chemistry
and Environment Professor, Thessaloniki

198
00:15:57,558 --> 00:16:01,413
<i>The Potamon Dam in Rethimno
has already been turned over to TERNA...</i>

199
00:16:01,863 --> 00:16:06,363
<i>to be used as a water reservoir
for the hybrid project they are developing.</i>

200
00:16:07,781 --> 00:16:10,794
<i>In Chania, Valsamiotis Dam
is under construction.</i>

201
00:16:11,062 --> 00:16:14,421
<i>Its cost is 8 times the cost of
a water saving project...</i>

202
00:16:14,678 --> 00:16:18,194
<i>which would save a dam per year
in water quantity.</i>

203
00:16:19,022 --> 00:16:24,217
<i>It is said that a private power company
is interested in using this dam too.</i>

204
00:16:25,933 --> 00:16:31,830
Someone who manages a dam in order
to produce power in most cases...

205
00:16:32,283 --> 00:16:38,251
is considered owner of the water
used to produce that energy.

206
00:16:38,970 --> 00:16:46,045
Populations living
nearby hybrid projects...

207
00:16:46,608 --> 00:16:51,040
do not have the right
to access and use that water.

208
00:16:57,064 --> 00:17:00,421
<i>Supporters of hybrid and wind farms
present them...</i>

209
00:17:00,823 --> 00:17:03,278
<i>as a continuation
of traditional water mills...</i>

210
00:17:03,607 --> 00:17:05,477
<i>and small scale hydroelectric plants.</i>

211
00:17:06,290 --> 00:17:11,262
50 years ago, this was
George Kanoutakis' water mill.

212
00:17:12,776 --> 00:17:15,598
All machines were powered by water.

213
00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:23,748
He milled olives, cut wood
and milled wheat with them.

214
00:17:26,087 --> 00:17:30,018
<i>The Crete-wide mobilization against
industrial renewable energy projects...</i>

215
00:17:30,241 --> 00:17:32,309
<i>had one root:
mount Apopigadi in Chania...</i>

216
00:17:32,719 --> 00:17:37,512
<i>and a top-class student who missed
some exams to inform his people.</i>

217
00:17:41,739 --> 00:17:45,310
Apopigadi took its name from
its springs and rills.

218
00:17:50,306 --> 00:17:53,252
Its medicinal water reaches the Libyan sea.

219
00:17:53,693 --> 00:17:56,843
There are the medicinal springs
of Temenia and Pina...

220
00:17:57,131 --> 00:17:59,835
that reach down to Paleochora.
This mountain is full of springs and rills.

221
00:18:02,331 --> 00:18:03,825
Spyros Panagiotakis, University student,
Palea Roumata resident

222
00:18:09,963 --> 00:18:14,540
It's obvious that the first step
to grab natural environment...

223
00:18:14,927 --> 00:18:18,217
is to build the proper disguise,
so called "green development".

224
00:18:18,472 --> 00:18:20,769
Then you can mangle the mountains,
turn them into plots...

225
00:18:21,601 --> 00:18:24,801
control wind energy...

226
00:18:25,751 --> 00:18:30,123
control water with hydroelectric
and hybrid projects.

227
00:18:30,601 --> 00:18:34,160
There's no guarantee that the fresh water
won't be used in some other way...

228
00:18:34,479 --> 00:18:37,217
at some point in the future.
You're a multinational conglomerate.

229
00:18:39,677 --> 00:18:43,778
<i>In Apopigadi, Mousoura Wind Company
was licensed to install 3 wind turbines.</i>

230
00:18:44,370 --> 00:18:48,978
<i>Then they asked to build a hybrid
project, with new wind turbines...</i>

231
00:18:49,308 --> 00:18:55,060
<i>and water reservoirs of 80,000 cubic meters
in an area of frequent earthquakes.</i>

232
00:18:55,845 --> 00:18:57,847
How could we trust them?

233
00:18:58,422 --> 00:19:01,940
They said they would install 3 wind
turbines and they wouldn't mess with water.

234
00:19:02,249 --> 00:19:05,054
Now they have asked for licenses
for hybrid and hydroelectric projects...

235
00:19:05,286 --> 00:19:08,112
in order to drill all around Apopigadi.

236
00:19:09,720 --> 00:19:14,515
<i>The company study predicts that there'll be
water leaks of 30,000 cubic meters per year.</i>

237
00:19:16,379 --> 00:19:22,856
<i>The reservoirs will be filled by 600 meter
deep bores into the underground aquifer.</i>

238
00:19:25,213 --> 00:19:31,214
If a bore gives more water than
what's needed...

239
00:19:31,791 --> 00:19:36,579
what is going to happen
with the rest of it?

240
00:19:37,584 --> 00:19:41,063
We are very concerned about that...

241
00:19:41,344 --> 00:19:44,705
because it gives an idea of
forthcoming privatization.

242
00:19:45,100 --> 00:19:50,015
We often read or hear investors say...

243
00:19:50,517 --> 00:19:54,315
and this is usually passed to the media...

244
00:19:55,280 --> 00:20:00,633
that the state and the municipalities
don't have money and they are no use...

245
00:20:01,144 --> 00:20:08,116
so private investors offer to contribute
to irrigation and water supply works.

246
00:20:10,286 --> 00:20:13,601
<i>We repeatedly tried to talk with
company representatives...</i>

247
00:20:13,974 --> 00:20:17,629
<i>but they refused referring to the
negative propaganda against them.</i>

248
00:20:19,169 --> 00:20:21,629
<i>The mother company behind
the Apopigadi project...</i>

249
00:20:22,153 --> 00:20:26,412
<i>and other projects in Crete
is French multinational EDF...</i>

250
00:20:26,954 --> 00:20:30,207
<i>second in the world in
nuclear power business.</i>

251
00:20:31,588 --> 00:20:39,186
<i>EDF has participated in a joint venture
with French multinational Veolia...</i>

252
00:20:39,740 --> 00:20:42,162
<i>the largest water company in the world.</i>

253
00:20:46,397 --> 00:20:49,379
<i>This is the map of current plans of
wind, hybrid and geothermic projects...</i>

254
00:20:50,005 --> 00:20:56,118
<i>based on licenses issued by
the Regulatory Authority for Energy.</i>

255
00:21:21,486 --> 00:21:24,948
<i>Skouries, Chalkidiki.
Here, on mount Kakavos...</i>

256
00:21:25,243 --> 00:21:29,483
<i>we find the aquifer that supplies
water to all Eastern Chalkidiki villages.</i>

257
00:21:30,446 --> 00:21:37,688
<i>This is where a new gold and copper mine
is now being built by Hellas Gold company.</i>

258
00:21:38,356 --> 00:21:42,563
<i>95% of this company belongs to Canadian
multinational Eldorado Gold...</i>

259
00:21:42,829 --> 00:21:45,583
<i>and 5% to Greek construction company Aktor</i>.

260
00:21:46,199 --> 00:21:48,711
Do you want to say it in simple words?
This place has been blacklisted.

261
00:21:49,871 --> 00:21:51,856
Sarantis Dimitriadis,
Geology Professor, Thessaloniki

262
00:21:52,089 --> 00:21:57,930
When there was a negotiation on
water management in Central Macedonia...

263
00:21:58,741 --> 00:22:04,290
I was there when the Environment
Ministry executive told us...

264
00:22:04,596 --> 00:22:11,564
"We see water either as potable
and used by people..."

265
00:22:12,047 --> 00:22:13,928
"or as intended for industrial use".

266
00:22:14,173 --> 00:22:17,048
"We have decided that this water
is for industrial use".

267
00:22:18,799 --> 00:22:23,147
<i>What do the government and the company
know that is being hidden from citizens?</i>

268
00:22:24,249 --> 00:22:26,001
There's a problem.

269
00:22:26,223 --> 00:22:28,378
Konstantinos Katsifarakis, Hydraylics
and Environment Professor, Thessaloniki

270
00:22:28,613 --> 00:22:31,724
In order to extract the minerals
water level must lower down.

271
00:22:32,014 --> 00:22:35,098
You can't have the minerals
in the underground water...

272
00:22:35,375 --> 00:22:38,561
or to have underground water
enter the excavation area.

273
00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:44,425
In Skouries, the water level
should be lowered by 700 meters.

274
00:22:47,847 --> 00:22:53,019
They will make 9 drillings around
the extraction site.

275
00:22:53,621 --> 00:22:55,824
Kyriakos Panagiotopoulos
Edaphology Professor, Thessaloniki

276
00:22:56,221 --> 00:22:59,586
It will start from around 700 meters.
The height there is 685 meters, I think.

277
00:23:00,520 --> 00:23:09,778
They'll start from there and reach
to 140 meters lower than sea level.

278
00:23:11,759 --> 00:23:14,481
Giannis Krestenitis, Hydraylics
and Environment Professor, Thessaloniki

279
00:23:14,867 --> 00:23:16,524
Since the pressure will decrease...

280
00:23:17,698 --> 00:23:24,536
the sea pressure will lead
sea water into the aquifer.

281
00:23:27,652 --> 00:23:30,595
In the environmental effects study,
they say...

282
00:23:31,100 --> 00:23:37,909
that the drainage cone, the area
the underground water level will decrease...

283
00:23:38,943 --> 00:23:42,535
is going to be 1440 hectares.

284
00:23:43,552 --> 00:23:47,542
<i>The destruction of the forest
above the drainage cone is considered certain.</i>

285
00:23:48,531 --> 00:23:50,660
<i>This is where a vicious circle begins...</i>

286
00:23:51,070 --> 00:23:54,741
<i>since the forest itself helps
the production of water and ground.</i>

287
00:23:56,143 --> 00:23:59,048
<i>Drilling is just the first phase.</i>

288
00:23:59,595 --> 00:24:03,527
<i>Then there's the mineral extraction
from the ground level...</i>

289
00:24:03,874 --> 00:24:06,241
<i>with an open pit
of almost 1 km diameter.</i>

290
00:24:06,775 --> 00:24:09,898
There's going to be a ground level
extraction for the first time.

291
00:24:10,176 --> 00:24:19,475
This means they'll use 4 to 6 tons
of explosives per 24 hours.

292
00:24:21,338 --> 00:24:26,710
The dust will contain heavy metals
which are toxic to all organisms.

293
00:24:28,037 --> 00:24:33,139
Heavy metals are harmless when
they are in the ground...

294
00:24:33,742 --> 00:24:38,045
but when they get in contact
with oxygen or rainwater...

295
00:24:38,672 --> 00:24:43,724
they activate and become solvent
and so they become toxic.

296
00:24:45,987 --> 00:24:54,417
This dust will pollute everything
in its course of hundreds of kilometers.

297
00:24:54,861 --> 00:24:58,612
Just think that we often have dust
from North Africa...

298
00:24:59,001 --> 00:25:03,119
which travels a thousand
kilometers or more.

299
00:25:04,532 --> 00:25:07,411
This dust will destroy bees too.

300
00:25:10,439 --> 00:25:13,560
I hadn't realized that,
but they are right to say...

301
00:25:14,107 --> 00:25:16,488
that there's no land without bees.

302
00:25:20,338 --> 00:25:23,544
<i>The extraction site of Skouries
is under development...</i>

303
00:25:23,887 --> 00:25:25,900
<i>just 900 meters from
Megali Panagia village.</i>

304
00:25:26,741 --> 00:25:28,927
Nestor Nestoros,
Megali Panagia resident

305
00:25:29,241 --> 00:25:31,454
There were kilometers of drilling
just above Megali Panagia.

306
00:25:34,416 --> 00:25:37,369
In spring 2011, if I recall right...

307
00:25:38,979 --> 00:25:41,772
the village had no more water.

308
00:25:43,210 --> 00:25:44,757
I live here for 53 years.

309
00:25:45,304 --> 00:25:47,431
Anna Polyza
Megali Panagia resident

310
00:25:47,926 --> 00:25:52,030
We have always drunk tap water.
Now we buy water.

311
00:25:52,523 --> 00:25:57,965
It's sad to live in the mountains
and buy potable water.

312
00:25:59,325 --> 00:26:00,535
Why do you buy water?

313
00:26:00,735 --> 00:26:02,417
Because it stinks,
you can't drink it.

314
00:26:03,360 --> 00:26:08,152
<i>The company study talks about pumping
700 cubic meters of water per hour.</i>

315
00:26:08,993 --> 00:26:12,005
<i>Half of it is needed
for the mineral treatment.</i>

316
00:26:12,655 --> 00:26:15,984
<i>It is mentioned that the rest
will be pushed back to the aquifer.</i>

317
00:26:16,903 --> 00:26:21,595
<i>All this without mentioning chemical use
or the final mineral processing.</i>

318
00:26:23,207 --> 00:26:27,329
<i>We tried to talk with Hellas Gold
representatives but they denied...</i>

319
00:26:27,729 --> 00:26:30,450
<i>referring to the
negative propaganda against them.</i>

320
00:26:32,064 --> 00:26:36,310
<i>We had a short discussion on that
with Aktor president Mr. Dimitris Koutras...</i>

321
00:26:36,666 --> 00:26:38,977
<i>which participates with 5%
in this joint venture.</i>

322
00:26:40,542 --> 00:26:43,355
Can you respect this Technical University?

323
00:26:44,378 --> 00:26:47,193
Thessaloniki Technical University
has no mineral engineering department.

324
00:26:47,915 --> 00:26:50,678
They know nothing about mines.
They're useless.

325
00:26:54,489 --> 00:26:58,920
We are not going to get any water from...

326
00:26:59,982 --> 00:27:04,433
The water we return from our drilling...

327
00:27:05,550 --> 00:27:08,703
according to the environmental studies...

328
00:27:09,277 --> 00:27:11,027
is returned as it was delivered by nature.

329
00:27:12,040 --> 00:27:14,575
How will you return the water?

330
00:27:14,956 --> 00:27:18,075
It goes to its place.
It goes back to the aquifers.

331
00:27:18,846 --> 00:27:20,612
Either to the rivers
or to the aquifers.

332
00:27:22,417 --> 00:27:27,565
<i>However, two dams will be built at
the streams that now supply water to the area.</i>

333
00:27:27,816 --> 00:27:31,988
<i>They will be 140 meters high and
98% of the processed minerals...</i>

334
00:27:33,159 --> 00:27:36,416
<i>will be stored there as toxic waste.</i>

335
00:27:36,645 --> 00:27:39,288
<i>The whole extraction expects to have
2 grams of gold and copper per ton.</i>

336
00:27:39,843 --> 00:27:44,801
<i>The company claims that all this toxic
waste will be covered with earth...</i>

337
00:27:45,692 --> 00:27:47,838
<i>and trees will be planted on it.</i>

338
00:27:49,563 --> 00:27:54,375
The dam specifications are scary
if you get to see them.

339
00:27:55,319 --> 00:27:58,512
They are built in an
earthquake-friendly area.

340
00:27:59,287 --> 00:28:03,724
When they will be abandoned in
50, 60, 70 or 100 years...

341
00:28:04,073 --> 00:28:05,768
there will be none to maintain them.

342
00:28:06,004 --> 00:28:07,710
These things get older...

343
00:28:07,933 --> 00:28:14,141
and they may cause a disaster...

344
00:28:14,756 --> 00:28:16,594
because the waste will be still there.

345
00:28:21,682 --> 00:28:24,802
<i>In 2010, after a strong rainstorm...</i>

346
00:28:51,427 --> 00:28:57,563
<i>This is not the only recorded damage from
the extractions at Stratoniki and Olympiada.</i>

347
00:28:58,268 --> 00:29:04,026
<i>These extractions began in the 1930s
and intensified after 1996.</i>

348
00:29:07,358 --> 00:29:09,389
Kyriakos Panagiotopoulos
Edaphology Professor, Thessaloniki

349
00:29:09,858 --> 00:29:15,391
In 2010 the local veterinary authorities
forbade two cattlemen...

350
00:29:15,819 --> 00:29:20,089
to get their cattle out...

351
00:29:21,083 --> 00:29:23,823
or sell any products of them...

352
00:29:24,514 --> 00:29:32,987
because there was too much lead
in their milk.

353
00:29:34,307 --> 00:29:36,896
They say "Why are you protesting
while there's so much unemployment?"

354
00:29:37,161 --> 00:29:38,996
"500 people will find a job there."

355
00:29:41,033 --> 00:29:47,191
Sure, but what if these 500 working people
cause unemployment of 100,000 people?

356
00:29:47,780 --> 00:29:49,522
We have to consider this case.

357
00:29:51,199 --> 00:29:53,928
<i>Water can't be bought
with all the gold of the world</i>

358
00:29:54,400 --> 00:29:56,907
Maria Kadoglou,
Mineral Works Observatory

359
00:29:57,633 --> 00:30:00,779
There is a ban based on a 1980
Stratoni port regulation...

360
00:30:03,735 --> 00:30:08,236
which says that because of
the beach pollution...

361
00:30:09,510 --> 00:30:15,734
fishing is not allowed until you reach
one km into the sea all along the beach.

362
00:30:17,073 --> 00:30:23,230
Swimming, collecting oysters etc.
is also forbidden.

363
00:30:24,749 --> 00:30:28,659
The Blue Flag is an international
symbol of quality...

364
00:30:28,988 --> 00:30:32,015
a European symbol of quality
of swimming water...

365
00:30:32,972 --> 00:30:35,746
and it is awarded every year
by the Ministry of Environment.

366
00:30:36,456 --> 00:30:40,536
A Blue Flag has been awarded to
the Stratoni beach for 3 years now.

367
00:30:43,962 --> 00:30:49,014
<i>Even though 250 hectares of ground is
needed for the extraction in Skouries...</i>

368
00:30:49,261 --> 00:30:50,954
<i>the government has given
to the company...</i>

369
00:30:51,263 --> 00:30:53,443
<i>the mining rights to 31,700 hectares.</i>

370
00:30:54,903 --> 00:30:57,656
<i>The company is currently drilling
there without any license...</i>

371
00:30:58,235 --> 00:30:59,892
<i>to detect new deposits.</i>

372
00:31:00,891 --> 00:31:02,873
<i>This is where Neochori is situated.</i>

373
00:31:06,030 --> 00:31:11,612
We have been getting water from
St. Athanassios spring for 30 years.

374
00:31:12,936 --> 00:31:15,687
Apostolos Santavas
Neochori resident

375
00:31:16,113 --> 00:31:18,853
In mid August, the water started
smelling badly...

376
00:31:19,743 --> 00:31:23,506
and people from the village
were concerned.

377
00:31:25,080 --> 00:31:30,536
On August 30, Mayor Pachtas announced...

378
00:31:31,459 --> 00:31:35,016
that there's arsenic in the water.

379
00:31:37,190 --> 00:31:40,487
He didn't publish the analysis though.

380
00:31:41,795 --> 00:31:43,073
There are 50 drillings.

381
00:31:43,272 --> 00:31:45,532
There are 50 drillings in a 200 meter radius.

382
00:31:46,828 --> 00:31:48,039
But what is arsenic?

383
00:31:48,346 --> 00:31:51,833
It is the most clear, defined with
both experiments and epidemiological studies...

384
00:31:52,485 --> 00:31:54,388
substance that causes cancer.

385
00:31:55,297 --> 00:31:58,523
Alexis Benos,
Medical School Professor, Thessaloniki

386
00:32:01,852 --> 00:32:03,789
They are asking us if we have data.

387
00:32:04,024 --> 00:32:06,908
We do, and unfortunately
it means disease and death.

388
00:32:07,458 --> 00:32:10,214
Some workers of Hellas Gold
were telling me...

389
00:32:11,545 --> 00:32:13,812
"I'm there every day
and I'm totally healthy".

390
00:32:14,141 --> 00:32:18,797
"Don't tell me it's harmful.
I go there, I breath, I drink water..."

391
00:32:19,154 --> 00:32:20,896
"and I'm totally healthy".

392
00:32:21,349 --> 00:32:24,138
They're not thinking of the time dimension.

393
00:32:24,358 --> 00:32:26,168
You won't die in two minutes time.

394
00:32:26,539 --> 00:32:31,936
It's after 5, 10 or 15 years
that you'll get cancer out if it.

395
00:32:32,694 --> 00:32:33,999
And it is going to be late then.

396
00:32:35,819 --> 00:32:38,931
<i>The Neochori case led us to
inspect past water analyses.</i>

397
00:32:39,687 --> 00:32:45,595
<i>In villages like Olympiada and Stratoni
for many years water contains arsenic...</i>

398
00:32:46,011 --> 00:32:49,089
<i>near or over the allowed limit
of 10 micrograms per liter.</i>

399
00:32:52,608 --> 00:32:55,958
In Halkidiki, for example.
The aquifer is one-piece.

400
00:32:56,479 --> 00:32:58,731
Thanasis Panteloglou,
Chemical engineer-Biotechnologist

401
00:32:59,079 --> 00:33:01,587
They say there's 30 micrograms
of arsenic, for example.

402
00:33:02,203 --> 00:33:03,663
The limit is 10 micrograms.

403
00:33:03,900 --> 00:33:05,980
So, what do you do?

404
00:33:06,228 --> 00:33:07,947
On the one hand, they thin it down...

405
00:33:08,159 --> 00:33:11,613
and Mayor Pachtas says I'm giving
you the poison little by little.

406
00:33:11,962 --> 00:33:15,297
You won't die now,
you'll die of chronic intoxication.

407
00:33:17,453 --> 00:33:20,062
So the water is clean, there's
9 micrograms, because we thin it down.

408
00:33:21,809 --> 00:33:26,005
This is not allowed,
thinning down is adulteration.

409
00:33:26,637 --> 00:33:29,727
You have a clean product,
you mix it with the foul one.

410
00:33:30,889 --> 00:33:33,636
This is thinning down,
but it's adulteration too.

411
00:33:34,140 --> 00:33:38,759
<i>In the analyses, we also found
a crime against local populations:</i>

412
00:33:39,312 --> 00:33:43,605
<i>In Stagira, in 2011, the water
springs contained arsenic...</i>

413
00:33:43,948 --> 00:33:46,117
<i>3 to 5 times over the limit...</i>

414
00:33:46,586 --> 00:33:51,279
<i>much more than what caused the recent
water ban at Neochori.</i>

415
00:33:52,396 --> 00:33:56,034
<i>The Aristotelis municipality
continued offering contaminated water...</i>

416
00:33:56,455 --> 00:33:59,361
<i>without warning about the dangers
on locals' health.</i>

417
00:34:00,055 --> 00:34:03,114
<i>Even more, in the latest analysis
for Stagira...</i>

418
00:34:03,574 --> 00:34:08,495
<i>there's no measurement for the springs
that had highest arsenic count in 2011.</i>

419
00:34:10,346 --> 00:34:14,899
Meanwhile, all these water resources...

420
00:34:16,060 --> 00:34:20,440
are controlled by KEPAMACH.

421
00:34:21,278 --> 00:34:24,210
This is the water control body.

422
00:34:24,526 --> 00:34:29,190
Hellas Gold has
a 5% participation to this body.

423
00:34:30,306 --> 00:34:39,727
So you can understand how northeast
Halkidiki will end up.

424
00:34:41,046 --> 00:34:50,776
An area with open pits and
giant dams filled with waste.

425
00:34:52,183 --> 00:34:58,056
This procedure will quickly
end up to the desertation of the area.

426
00:34:59,354 --> 00:35:02,642
Desertation will drive
to social desertation.

427
00:35:03,122 --> 00:35:05,998
What will people do?
They will be forced to migrate.

428
00:35:06,202 --> 00:35:09,841
Those poor black guys who come here
from Africa...

429
00:35:10,360 --> 00:35:14,113
have abandoned areas that were
deserted with this kind of procedure.

430
00:35:14,461 --> 00:35:17,904
They never got rich, although
there was much gold and many diamonds.

431
00:35:18,655 --> 00:35:20,805
They come here to sell CDs...

432
00:35:21,398 --> 00:35:24,626
and become victims of racism
and neo-Nazi gangs.

433
00:35:35,701 --> 00:35:38,748
<i>Just 45 km away from Athens,
there is Asopos.</i>

434
00:35:39,157 --> 00:35:43,587
<i>It is a small, torrentous river
running from Thiva to Oropos.</i>

435
00:35:44,854 --> 00:35:49,071
<i>The Asopos adventure begins with
a decree from the dictatorship era.</i>

436
00:35:50,288 --> 00:35:54,420
In 1969 Asopos river is characterized
as an industrial waste receiver.

437
00:35:55,038 --> 00:35:57,644
Giannis Ikonomides,
Priest, Inofyta

438
00:35:59,407 --> 00:36:03,663
Athens' industry gradually moved
to our area.

439
00:36:05,242 --> 00:36:11,426
Businessmen bought any land plot
they wanted without planning...

440
00:36:12,255 --> 00:36:15,286
and they were building their industries.

441
00:36:17,956 --> 00:36:21,699
For decades, industries have functioned
and still do without any control...

442
00:36:22,271 --> 00:36:25,333
and they throw their waste
to the river without any treatment.

443
00:36:25,972 --> 00:36:27,514
As if this wasn't enough...

444
00:36:27,755 --> 00:36:32,026
those that are not near the river
drill illegally in their courtyards...

445
00:36:32,787 --> 00:36:36,329
and pump their waste directly
to the aquifer.

446
00:36:39,333 --> 00:36:43,734
I started working on this case in 2000.

447
00:36:45,997 --> 00:36:49,121
My son was one year old...

448
00:36:49,944 --> 00:36:54,951
and I heard chemist
Thanasis Panteloglou say...

449
00:36:57,558 --> 00:37:00,817
"In your area you kill your babies".

450
00:37:02,141 --> 00:37:09,868
He told me then that the detergent
formulas he used at his work for years...

451
00:37:10,610 --> 00:37:12,908
wouldn't work as expected in our area.

452
00:37:14,392 --> 00:37:19,460
He tried to find out what caused
the problem, and it was the water.

453
00:37:20,892 --> 00:37:28,294
The water we were drinking was
unsuitable to make detergents and soaps.

454
00:37:29,881 --> 00:37:33,443
There was lead, cadmium, nickel.

455
00:37:33,879 --> 00:37:36,564
Thanasis Panteloglou,
Chemical engineer-Biotechnologist

456
00:37:36,845 --> 00:37:43,981
But the most dangerous is hexavalent
chromium, which has an evil attribute.

457
00:37:45,466 --> 00:37:51,944
When it enters the body
through water, food or air...

458
00:37:54,376 --> 00:37:56,836
it can get in your cells.

459
00:37:58,064 --> 00:38:01,811
If the cell is contaminated
by hexavalent chromium...

460
00:38:02,247 --> 00:38:09,017
the natural cell repair mechanism
finds its place taken.

461
00:38:10,553 --> 00:38:17,318
The cell remains unrepaired,
with metals in its DNA.

462
00:38:18,580 --> 00:38:20,836
We asked the health authorities.

463
00:38:21,374 --> 00:38:24,338
We realized that there was no archive.

464
00:38:26,182 --> 00:38:30,887
We only had the cemetery register
of my parish, St. Spyridon in Inofyta.

465
00:38:32,654 --> 00:38:37,100
The cemetery register showed us
that cancer as a death cause...

466
00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:43,637
has risen from 6% in 1988
to 36% in 2004.

467
00:38:45,353 --> 00:38:47,630
It gets down to the third generation.

468
00:38:47,885 --> 00:38:56,373
When we talk about transmuted cells
and abnormities...

469
00:38:57,653 --> 00:39:01,764
caused by heavy metals
and hexavalent chromium especially...

470
00:39:02,047 --> 00:39:08,872
we mean there's impact on us, on our
children, our grandchildren...

471
00:39:10,028 --> 00:39:14,427
and now we work on the impacts on our
grand grandchildren, the fourth generation.

472
00:39:15,761 --> 00:39:17,405
It will be going on.

473
00:39:18,696 --> 00:39:21,165
Heavy metals are not destroyed.

474
00:39:21,722 --> 00:39:23,667
Heavy metals are passed down.

475
00:39:24,829 --> 00:39:29,498
There's impact on the brain
and the reproduction system.

476
00:39:29,703 --> 00:39:33,201
You may not face an abnormity
when the child's born.

477
00:39:33,792 --> 00:39:36,661
You may find out 12 years later...

478
00:39:36,868 --> 00:39:42,079
when a young girl won't
get normal period.

479
00:39:42,916 --> 00:39:49,924
Or a woman in reproductive age
that has vesicular ovarian follicle...

480
00:39:50,488 --> 00:39:52,188
and cannot have babies.

481
00:39:52,416 --> 00:39:55,449
So we had grandmothers that gave birth
to 10-12 children...

482
00:39:55,812 --> 00:39:57,521
while working in the fields...

483
00:39:57,946 --> 00:40:02,128
mothers who had 3-4 children
and 10 abortions...

484
00:40:02,953 --> 00:40:08,687
and now their daughters need IVF.

485
00:40:10,589 --> 00:40:13,271
<i>Asopos contamination is not
a local problem...</i>

486
00:40:13,525 --> 00:40:16,526
<i>because it reaches the whole country
through local products...</i>

487
00:40:16,773 --> 00:40:21,136
<i>from cosmetics to soft drinks
and agricultural products.</i>

488
00:40:22,288 --> 00:40:26,201
We went to all Athens' super markets
and bought potatoes, carrots and onions...

489
00:40:26,467 --> 00:40:28,526
that said they came from that area.

490
00:40:28,687 --> 00:40:30,935
Giannis Zabetakis,
Food Chemistry Professor, Athens

491
00:40:31,069 --> 00:40:35,301
We analyzed and compared them
with potatoes, carrots and onions...

492
00:40:35,534 --> 00:40:41,907
from Cyprus or Italy and we found out
that the area products...

493
00:40:42,080 --> 00:40:46,222
contain heavy metals, chromium and nickel.

494
00:40:47,614 --> 00:40:51,163
The difference is up to 100%.

495
00:40:51,959 --> 00:40:54,594
<i>Zabetakis' research caused
a number of reactions...</i>

496
00:40:55,068 --> 00:40:57,327
<i>among them an extrajudicial letter.</i>

497
00:40:58,102 --> 00:41:04,891
The farmers wanted to know
if our results are real etc.

498
00:41:06,229 --> 00:41:10,808
<i>Our constant attempts to meet
a representative of the farmers failed.</i>

499
00:41:12,662 --> 00:41:16,916
If I was a farmer I would look for
whoever harms my products.

500
00:41:17,374 --> 00:41:20,976
Who pollutes the water and the land?

501
00:41:21,545 --> 00:41:25,600
My land has been contaminated
with heavy metals by some businessmen...

502
00:41:26,139 --> 00:41:28,971
not by Zabetakis' research
for Athens University.

503
00:41:29,674 --> 00:41:31,639
I don't want to harm the area.

504
00:41:32,155 --> 00:41:34,988
I have a consumer health perspective.

505
00:41:35,529 --> 00:41:38,614
I don't want my child to eat
potatoes with nickel in them.

506
00:41:39,732 --> 00:41:42,532
This case is out of control...

507
00:41:42,690 --> 00:41:48,170
and we're looking for scapegoats
instead of doing what we have to do.

508
00:41:48,512 --> 00:41:51,648
We should be united,
scientists, the state-

509
00:41:52,464 --> 00:41:54,737
Well, forget the state,
we have the troika now.

510
00:41:55,053 --> 00:42:01,902
Farmers, scientists and harmed citizens,
like cancer patients in the area...

511
00:42:02,283 --> 00:42:07,119
should unite and sue the polluters.

512
00:42:09,540 --> 00:42:12,520
<i>Since the contaminated aquifer
is one-piece from Avlida to Oropos...</i>

513
00:42:12,769 --> 00:42:16,234
<i>EYDAP (Athens' water company) came in
to tone down the problem.</i>

514
00:42:17,326 --> 00:42:21,001
There has been an intervention...

515
00:42:21,414 --> 00:42:24,005
and clean water is now distributed
in Inofyta and Thiva...

516
00:42:24,234 --> 00:42:26,495
after all these troubles,
that lasted until 2010-2011.

517
00:42:26,679 --> 00:42:29,363
But water has not been replaced
in all villages of the area.

518
00:42:29,962 --> 00:42:33,949
It hasn't been replaced
in Avlida or Oropos.

519
00:42:35,185 --> 00:42:41,059
A large part of this area
still drinks contaminated water.

520
00:42:43,558 --> 00:42:47,438
EYDAP is a publicly traded company, right?

521
00:42:48,171 --> 00:42:50,389
They have appropriated
water from all around.

522
00:42:51,123 --> 00:42:54,486
They have a right to have
extra water reserves...

523
00:42:54,735 --> 00:42:56,551
for Athens' water supply.

524
00:42:56,753 --> 00:42:59,403
They have two reserves.

525
00:42:59,803 --> 00:43:03,703
One of them is lake Iliki,
where they get a lot of water...

526
00:43:03,939 --> 00:43:07,308
400,000 cubic meters per year.

527
00:43:09,833 --> 00:43:13,184
And they also have water
from northeast Parnitha mountain.

528
00:43:14,677 --> 00:43:16,783
This is rich, clean water.

529
00:43:18,186 --> 00:43:21,165
It is public property given
to them to use it as they want.

530
00:43:21,730 --> 00:43:22,679
And they sell it.

531
00:43:22,903 --> 00:43:23,949
I don't get it.

532
00:43:24,777 --> 00:43:26,586
If Oropos municipality has
no clean water...

533
00:43:27,222 --> 00:43:30,316
why should they get it to
sell it to the industries?

534
00:43:31,092 --> 00:43:37,655
If it was given to food or
medicine industry, I wouldn't object.

535
00:43:38,876 --> 00:43:41,775
Do you know they give it
to metal industries?

536
00:43:42,250 --> 00:43:45,744
They use it once in the factory
and then it's toxic waste.

537
00:43:46,747 --> 00:43:50,412
Where is it thrown away?
Right to the aquifer.

538
00:43:52,313 --> 00:43:57,251
<i>We should remind that EYDAP, Athens
Water Supply and Sewerage Company...</i>

539
00:43:57,650 --> 00:44:00,397
<i>has already been assigned to the
state Asset Development Fund (HRADF)...</i>

540
00:44:00,702 --> 00:44:01,674
<i>in order to be sold.</i>

541
00:44:01,901 --> 00:44:05,040
<i>Its extension to Viotia
and Inofyta industries...</i>

542
00:44:05,347 --> 00:44:08,792
<i>promises more profits
for the potential buyer.</i>

543
00:44:24,684 --> 00:44:28,908
<i>The "Kallikratis" Act added
60,000 citizens to the city of Volos...</i>

544
00:44:29,357 --> 00:44:31,387
<i>or 41 villages of the area.</i>

545
00:44:31,973 --> 00:44:37,038
<i>The municipal water and sewage
company (DEYAMV) took over water command...</i>

546
00:44:37,490 --> 00:44:40,141
<i>and installed chlorinators
in Pelion villages...</i>

547
00:44:40,365 --> 00:44:41,944
<i>causing the rage of locals.</i>

548
00:44:42,449 --> 00:44:44,305
The water of Pelion is top quality.

549
00:44:44,594 --> 00:44:47,671
It's been known for years that
it's one of the best of the world.

550
00:44:48,312 --> 00:44:50,024
Vagelis Galanopoulos,
Pelion-Volos Citizens for Water

551
00:44:50,518 --> 00:44:53,790
It's not just quality water.
Its natural attributes are perfect.

552
00:44:54,630 --> 00:45:01,144
So there are some questions
regarding DEYAMV's policy.

553
00:45:02,998 --> 00:45:08,148
Their first action outraged
people in the villages of Pelion...

554
00:45:08,675 --> 00:45:14,992
because it was the preventive
chlorination of water.

555
00:45:15,772 --> 00:45:22,923
They abolish the right to the water
people have been drinking for centuries...

556
00:45:23,627 --> 00:45:28,098
without ever turning to the health
services for some problem.

557
00:45:30,824 --> 00:45:36,654
If the villagers accept without
any proofs...

558
00:45:38,928 --> 00:45:42,343
that their water is dirty
because DEYAMV says so...

559
00:45:42,681 --> 00:45:44,798
that it is degraded and dangerous...

560
00:45:45,359 --> 00:45:47,737
then they will turn to bottled water...

561
00:45:48,075 --> 00:45:51,122
they will abandon the springs
and lose their interest on them.

562
00:45:51,368 --> 00:45:57,438
Then the springs will be easy prey
for any investor.

563
00:46:01,122 --> 00:46:03,200
Why do you use chlorination?

564
00:46:03,763 --> 00:46:06,125
It is required by the law.
We are obliged to follow order.

565
00:46:06,537 --> 00:46:08,139
Leonidas Mavrogiannis,
DEYAMV Vice-President

566
00:46:08,793 --> 00:46:14,379
The law says that tap water
should have no germs at all.

567
00:46:16,575 --> 00:46:19,953
Is chlorination or fumigation
required by the law?

568
00:46:20,174 --> 00:46:25,709
Fumigation. But laws in Greece say
that this is the fumigation process.

569
00:46:35,601 --> 00:46:38,089
<i>The law does not require chlorination...</i>

570
00:46:38,489 --> 00:46:41,189
<i>but the proper maintenance
and fumigation of the pipes.</i>

571
00:46:41,763 --> 00:46:44,243
<i>However, there are more
requirements according to the law.</i>

572
00:46:45,397 --> 00:46:53,378
We would say that in the existing law
there are two health regulations.

573
00:46:54,688 --> 00:46:59,779
There's a 1957 law that excepts communities
with under 3,000 inhabitants...

574
00:47:00,117 --> 00:47:04,005
from the chlorination process,
which is reasonable.

575
00:47:04,723 --> 00:47:08,221
Then there's paragraph 2 of article 4
of the current law...

576
00:47:08,821 --> 00:47:13,823
which is adapted to European law
where it's stated clearly...

577
00:47:14,402 --> 00:47:17,031
that the process used...

578
00:47:17,937 --> 00:47:20,771
to fumigate water
or protect fresh water...

579
00:47:21,744 --> 00:47:28,254
should not degrade natural
attributes of the water.

580
00:47:28,576 --> 00:47:34,064
Our water is perfect, they say
it's quite like Evian's water.

581
00:47:34,434 --> 00:47:40,462
They can't chlorinate it and degrade
the quality of our tap water.

582
00:47:40,839 --> 00:47:42,942
This is prohibited by the law.

583
00:47:44,279 --> 00:47:46,634
Alexis Benos,
Medical School Professor, Thessaloniki

584
00:47:47,029 --> 00:47:49,563
Chlorination is a typical example...

585
00:47:49,799 --> 00:47:52,302
for the idea that
we should put our test to the test.

586
00:47:52,346 --> 00:47:55,168
Overchlorination has an impact
on stomach...

587
00:47:55,723 --> 00:47:58,130
and is related to increased
stomach cancer rates.

588
00:47:59,706 --> 00:48:02,839
Chlorine causes vulnerabilities
to the stomach and the enteron.

589
00:48:04,076 --> 00:48:06,662
Evina Paparizou,
Biologist-Microbiologist

590
00:48:06,940 --> 00:48:11,302
When chlorine meets organic matters
that exist in the water...

591
00:48:11,743 --> 00:48:17,201
like dead bacteria or other matters
that happen to be in the network...

592
00:48:17,651 --> 00:48:24,764
it forms new products
like trihalomethanes or THM.

593
00:48:26,109 --> 00:48:28,379
It can also form chloroform.

594
00:48:28,783 --> 00:48:33,208
These new products cause carcinogenesis.

595
00:48:34,033 --> 00:48:39,044
The can cause mutations and cancer.

596
00:48:39,949 --> 00:48:44,180
In a village or a town,
if there's a suspicion...

597
00:48:44,439 --> 00:48:45,958
that the network has a problem...

598
00:48:46,321 --> 00:48:50,540
they could overchlorinate
while cleaning up...

599
00:48:51,850 --> 00:48:53,144
but they should tell people.

600
00:48:53,429 --> 00:49:01,660
"Don't drink water today, let chlorinated
water flow to clean up germs".

601
00:49:02,337 --> 00:49:06,208
The other day clean water should
flow and not be drank.

602
00:49:06,487 --> 00:49:09,566
I mean there's a procedure,
it will only last a few hours.

603
00:49:09,874 --> 00:49:12,242
At 8 o' clock you'll be able
to drink water normally.

604
00:49:12,609 --> 00:49:14,466
So you can use chlorine
to clean up the pipes...

605
00:49:14,922 --> 00:49:16,946
and then serve water
without chlorine.

606
00:49:18,319 --> 00:49:20,888
<i>Volos citizens have to buy bottled water.</i>

607
00:49:21,186 --> 00:49:24,106
<i>The cost is estimated
to 30 million euros per year.</i>

608
00:49:25,453 --> 00:49:32,230
Unfortunately, people buy bottled water
because of the chlorine leftovers...

609
00:49:32,745 --> 00:49:33,932
in city networks.

610
00:49:34,143 --> 00:49:36,971
There are some varieties
of bottled water.

611
00:49:37,378 --> 00:49:39,784
One of them is called table water.

612
00:49:40,156 --> 00:49:47,899
This water may be coming from anywhere,
rivers, lakes, bores.

613
00:49:48,485 --> 00:49:55,883
According to the law
they could also be fumigated.

614
00:49:56,517 --> 00:49:59,220
That is, they can also be chlorinated.

615
00:50:02,095 --> 00:50:05,901
It's a network problem.
But we don't know about networks yet.

616
00:50:06,253 --> 00:50:07,706
We have to replace them.

617
00:50:07,968 --> 00:50:11,869
To replace the network in a village
like Agios Vlassis...

618
00:50:12,642 --> 00:50:16,905
we need many thousands of euros,
which the company doesn't have right now.

619
00:50:17,676 --> 00:50:22,022
They could get money from the EU,
or wherever they could...

620
00:50:23,252 --> 00:50:29,875
to gradually replace
the old asbestos cement pipes...

621
00:50:30,163 --> 00:50:36,232
which are full of holes
and save water that way.

622
00:50:37,231 --> 00:50:44,905
Instead, they build a new pipe
to get water from the mountain.

623
00:50:47,805 --> 00:50:51,355
37% of the network
is made of asbestos cement pipes.

624
00:50:52,380 --> 00:50:54,407
More or less.
It could be less by now.

625
00:50:55,077 --> 00:50:57,143
Isn't it a problem
for water quality?

626
00:50:57,407 --> 00:51:01,127
Not for water quality.
The quality doesn't change.

627
00:51:03,856 --> 00:51:10,563
If we get to find financing,
we will replace them gradually.

628
00:51:11,155 --> 00:51:16,353
Asbestos cement pipes have been banned
because they are considered dangerous.

629
00:51:16,882 --> 00:51:19,831
They have asbestos
which is thought to cause cancer.

630
00:51:21,844 --> 00:51:23,875
Sarantis Dimitriadis,
Geology Professor, Thessaloniki

631
00:51:24,066 --> 00:51:27,659
The municipality should grab
the first opportunity...

632
00:51:27,991 --> 00:51:30,335
to replace these pipes.

633
00:51:31,318 --> 00:51:34,902
<i>Almost all water supply networks
in Greece use asbestos cement pipes...</i>

634
00:51:35,262 --> 00:51:37,297
<i>from Thessaloniki to Crete.</i>

635
00:51:39,840 --> 00:51:42,657
<i>While high quality fresh Pelion water
is being chlorinated...</i>

636
00:51:42,920 --> 00:51:46,502
<i>and mixed with low quality water
from various drillings...</i>

637
00:51:46,781 --> 00:51:49,265
<i>in a flimsy asbestos cement
water pipe network...</i>

638
00:51:49,471 --> 00:51:53,725
<i>DEYAMV also takes over irrigation,
although there's no appropriate know-how.</i>

639
00:51:55,720 --> 00:51:59,104
Last year,
the turncock came and told us...

640
00:51:59,345 --> 00:52:02,564
not to water the trees,
just the vegetables.

641
00:52:04,047 --> 00:52:06,209
Olga Fragoudaki,
Portaria resident

642
00:52:06,422 --> 00:52:09,651
This was the first time we realized
that there's a problem.

643
00:52:09,851 --> 00:52:14,178
Until then we had no problems,
nobody told us what to water.

644
00:52:15,304 --> 00:52:16,595
This is what happened last year.

645
00:52:16,841 --> 00:52:25,977
This year DEYAMV makes a record
of all cultivated land.

646
00:52:26,994 --> 00:52:33,794
Who's the owner, how large it is,
if you have trees or vegetables.

647
00:52:36,235 --> 00:52:42,901
In 2015 they expect EU funding
to have the water flow...

648
00:52:43,148 --> 00:52:46,656
in closed pipes instead
of open streams.

649
00:52:50,337 --> 00:52:57,515
Things are getting harder,
trees will die.

650
00:52:58,752 --> 00:53:03,805
Water won't flow in the open stream,
which allowed various plants to grow...

651
00:53:04,250 --> 00:53:08,960
into all that beauty.

652
00:53:26,528 --> 00:53:30,521
Second part
MANIPULATIONS AND REACTIONS

653
00:53:32,361 --> 00:53:36,064
Just like chlorination,
the irrigation issue hurt a lot...

654
00:53:36,322 --> 00:53:40,508
because people self-control
irrigation for centuries.

655
00:53:41,380 --> 00:53:46,941
Their reaction when they heard
that DEYAMV took over irrigation...

656
00:53:47,188 --> 00:53:49,111
was very intense.

657
00:53:49,823 --> 00:53:57,532
There were assemblies and resolutions
and a lot of refusals.

658
00:53:58,186 --> 00:54:05,164
Actually a large part of farmers
refused to fill in the form DEYAMV gave them...

659
00:54:05,662 --> 00:54:08,991
to register their irrigated land.

660
00:54:09,795 --> 00:54:15,402
All these pieces of DEYAMV's policy
build up a larger picture...

661
00:54:15,653 --> 00:54:18,436
which is clear for us:
We 're heading to privatization.

662
00:54:19,293 --> 00:54:22,804
Unfortunately the people you've talked to
are looking only at the one side.

663
00:54:23,800 --> 00:54:25,678
They have a prejudice against DEYAMV.

664
00:54:27,158 --> 00:54:31,718
I believe they have
a possessive perception of water.

665
00:54:32,335 --> 00:54:35,467
Leonidas Mavrogiannis,
DEYAMV Vice-President

666
00:54:35,744 --> 00:54:39,773
They say "You won't get our water".

667
00:54:41,002 --> 00:54:42,953
It's not their water, though.

668
00:54:43,211 --> 00:54:46,215
The law around the world
and in Greece too...

669
00:54:46,567 --> 00:54:49,095
does not allow property of water.

670
00:54:50,267 --> 00:54:51,528
What does it mean to say...

671
00:54:51,751 --> 00:54:53,989
I was born near a spring
so the water is mine?

672
00:54:54,473 --> 00:54:56,437
And no one can pay to get it?

673
00:54:58,637 --> 00:55:02,517
We were the first municipal water
company to join the European campaign...

674
00:55:02,772 --> 00:55:05,865
and we publicized the European
declaration against water privatization.

675
00:55:12,671 --> 00:55:17,438
We can't solve all problems at once.

676
00:55:17,889 --> 00:55:20,769
We are trying, starting from water sources.

677
00:55:21,159 --> 00:55:26,215
We've already bought some land
with springs in order to enclose it.

678
00:55:48,366 --> 00:55:51,412
I have two coops,
one for hens and one for chicks.

679
00:55:51,831 --> 00:55:56,652
The chickens used to drink
half a bucket of water everyday.

680
00:55:57,965 --> 00:56:02,332
Since they used chlorine,
the chickens only drink an inch of it!

681
00:56:04,273 --> 00:56:06,389
Even chickens won't drink that water.
This is a fact.

682
00:56:09,287 --> 00:56:18,649
The first two times some small groups
removed the chlorinator during the night.

683
00:56:21,319 --> 00:56:29,892
The third time everyone was outraged
and it happened at high noon.

684
00:56:33,099 --> 00:56:35,476
This was really nice.

685
00:56:36,105 --> 00:56:37,523
We felt-

686
00:56:40,104 --> 00:56:42,405
We thought "Are we so powerful?".

687
00:56:43,695 --> 00:56:46,265
We felt so happy that all this happened.

688
00:56:47,406 --> 00:56:49,065
How did you react?

689
00:56:49,294 --> 00:56:50,487
We sued them.

690
00:56:50,937 --> 00:56:54,613
For sabotage and
jeopardizing public health.

691
00:56:56,569 --> 00:56:59,226
How will you act
if the reactions continue?

692
00:57:00,052 --> 00:57:03,117
We won't act, the courts will.
What can we do?

693
00:57:04,427 --> 00:57:09,666
Local communities considered
chlorination as an offensive action...

694
00:57:10,781 --> 00:57:15,440
which will never be accepted.

695
00:57:17,623 --> 00:57:20,496
<i>The mobilization of citizens
in Volos and Pelion...</i>

696
00:57:20,869 --> 00:57:22,858
<i>in such a premature stage
of the privatization process...</i>

697
00:57:23,277 --> 00:57:26,445
<i>comes as a surprise,
but they seem to know why.</i>

698
00:57:27,114 --> 00:57:29,107
<i>And the reason is called Lagonika.</i>

699
00:57:30,792 --> 00:57:34,658
POURI, EASTERN PELION
Lagonika spring, 1989-1994

700
00:57:47,026 --> 00:57:53,349
DEYAMV and the Municipality of Volos
decided without asking the locals...

701
00:57:55,093 --> 00:57:58,013
or the local authority
or anyone at all.

702
00:57:58,457 --> 00:58:00,992
Kostas Tsioumaris,
Pouri resident

703
00:58:01,239 --> 00:58:07,074
They decided to use this spring
along with the company of Volos.

704
00:58:08,826 --> 00:58:13,913
A constant battle began,
through press and media arguing...

705
00:58:15,847 --> 00:58:21,785
that people from Pouri don't want
to give water for Volos' needs.

706
00:58:23,279 --> 00:58:26,352
We didn't object the needs
of people of Volos....

707
00:58:26,990 --> 00:58:31,043
but we wanted to maintain
our existence here.

708
00:58:32,067 --> 00:58:35,057
You can't extend a city
without thinking...

709
00:58:35,490 --> 00:58:38,175
if the natural prerequisites exist.

710
00:58:38,587 --> 00:58:40,559
Dinos Pigos,
Volos resident

711
00:58:41,726 --> 00:58:45,299
If you don't have water
you can't extend a city.

712
00:58:45,573 --> 00:58:48,194
If the population increases
from 100 to 150 thousand people...

713
00:58:48,472 --> 00:58:51,586
you have to go very far
to transfer water.

714
00:58:52,088 --> 00:58:55,066
Like Volos,
that is climbing to Pelion.

715
00:58:55,892 --> 00:58:57,689
They are in Pelion now.

716
00:58:57,923 --> 00:58:59,659
They took over Kaliakouda spring,
it wasn't enough.

717
00:59:00,031 --> 00:59:02,308
They co-used Mana,
it wasn't enough.

718
00:59:02,801 --> 00:59:04,767
They took over Xirakia,
it wasn't enough.

719
00:59:05,262 --> 00:59:07,040
Lagonika wouldn't be enough too.

720
00:59:07,322 --> 00:59:11,666
This way we'll dry up Pelion,
it will not exist anymore.

721
00:59:13,906 --> 00:59:17,194
And Pelion is the greatest
value in this area.

722
00:59:17,600 --> 00:59:20,074
If we lose Pelion, we're all lost.

723
00:59:22,152 --> 00:59:28,154
<i>In September 1993 the citizens
suddenly saw the Police Special Forces...</i>

724
00:59:28,605 --> 00:59:33,038
<i>to contain Lagonika in order
to initiate the water transfer works.</i>

725
00:59:34,607 --> 00:59:38,365
<i>The whole village was decided
not to let them stay there.</i>

726
00:59:38,728 --> 00:59:41,135
<i>Since then, no one has
interfered with that spring.</i>

727
00:59:45,638 --> 00:59:50,297
We were a small group of people,
a small village.

728
00:59:50,565 --> 00:59:56,395
Since we all had the same opinion
it was normal to resist...

729
00:59:57,829 --> 01:00:01,041
using any legitimate or illegitimate
means of struggle.

730
01:00:01,939 --> 01:00:06,936
People need water in order to stay
at the village, like everywhere.

731
01:00:08,142 --> 01:00:10,376
That's what we thought
and that's how we reacted.

732
01:00:10,613 --> 01:00:15,332
We were aggressive to make them feel
that we didn't intend to retreat.

733
01:00:16,427 --> 01:00:19,311
<i>Jailed over water dispute</i>

734
01:00:19,936 --> 01:00:23,229
<i>Young arsonist from Pouri
on trial</i>

735
01:00:23,707 --> 01:00:26,145
<i>Kostas Polymerou on trial
for attempted murder</i>

736
01:00:27,525 --> 01:00:30,658
<i>Movements from all over Greece
stood in solidarity...</i>

737
01:00:30,863 --> 01:00:32,406
<i>with the young man from Pouri.</i>

738
01:00:32,623 --> 01:00:36,243
<i>People from Aravissos went to Volos
to act in solidarity.</i>

739
01:00:36,452 --> 01:00:38,530
<i>They had already faced water
appropriation and repression...</i>

740
01:00:38,749 --> 01:00:40,053
<i>a few years ago.</i>

741
01:00:40,611 --> 01:00:43,615
The springs that give water
to Thessaloniki are in Aravissos.

742
01:00:46,852 --> 01:00:48,372
ARAVISSOS, 1989

743
01:01:03,396 --> 01:01:06,557
In 1976 a contract was made...

744
01:01:07,650 --> 01:01:10,900
between the municipality
and the water company...

745
01:01:13,386 --> 01:01:17,854
to expropriate water sources
of Aravissos.

746
01:01:18,694 --> 01:01:20,956
Giorgos Askitis,
Aravissos Popular Committee Member

747
01:01:21,137 --> 01:01:22,974
Police forces in Aravissos.

748
01:01:24,807 --> 01:01:26,945
Demonstration in Giannitsa.

749
01:01:29,228 --> 01:01:31,401
Outside the court.

750
01:01:32,380 --> 01:01:38,035
They breached the contract,
by drilling 18 times.

751
01:01:38,858 --> 01:01:40,766
They backfilled the spring area...

752
01:01:41,097 --> 01:01:45,711
where there was extra water...

753
01:01:47,025 --> 01:01:50,590
other than surface water
that was taken to Thessaloniki.

754
01:01:51,068 --> 01:01:54,012
They tried to get
even the last drop.

755
01:01:54,239 --> 01:01:58,714
The result was that in 1989
the river ran dry.

756
01:01:59,069 --> 01:02:01,255
This is a unique case, globally.

757
01:02:01,488 --> 01:02:06,296
It was a barbarian assault.

758
01:02:07,540 --> 01:02:15,936
They accused us that we don't want
a million people to drink water.

759
01:02:17,795 --> 01:02:23,452
We investigated into the case
and we found out...

760
01:02:24,056 --> 01:02:27,475
that water was being wasted
to industries.

761
01:02:30,465 --> 01:02:33,544
I don't remember who
the minister was...

762
01:02:33,910 --> 01:02:37,920
but he said it's a big political
issue and he couldn't solve it.

763
01:02:39,440 --> 01:02:46,213
So we returned to Aravissos
and the citizens went in...

764
01:02:46,945 --> 01:02:52,358
and deprived the 3 drillings
that had destroyed the river...

765
01:02:56,527 --> 01:02:58,176
from the right to exist.

766
01:02:59,037 --> 01:03:01,929
It was an appropriation
of the 3 drillings...

767
01:03:02,339 --> 01:03:06,003
of which one was judged unlawful
by the local court.

768
01:03:08,161 --> 01:03:10,474
There was a police intervention.

769
01:03:10,751 --> 01:03:14,294
There were 800 Special Police
Forces men, all around the rural roads.

770
01:03:15,662 --> 01:03:21,530
There made some terrorist actions
in the village.

771
01:03:22,531 --> 01:03:26,728
It was like
it was under occupation.

772
01:03:29,467 --> 01:03:34,508
After the events,
the district attorney...

773
01:03:35,077 --> 01:03:40,482
ordered home investigations
for the committee members.

774
01:03:42,582 --> 01:03:44,960
This happened in the morning...

775
01:03:45,384 --> 01:03:50,721
and there was a guy with
covered face...

776
01:03:51,148 --> 01:03:57,343
who indicated which were
the committee members houses.

777
01:04:07,106 --> 01:04:11,232
Those that were sent to jail...

778
01:04:11,522 --> 01:04:15,469
reacted with a hunger strike
and 2 days of thirst strike.

779
01:04:17,958 --> 01:04:25,219
The pressure was so big that they
were released after a fortnight.

780
01:04:25,996 --> 01:04:30,837
Then we went to 5 years of trials.

781
01:04:31,444 --> 01:04:34,203
In the end the committee,
all 18 members of it...

782
01:04:34,442 --> 01:04:37,514
were found not guilty.

783
01:04:38,863 --> 01:04:41,936
The events in Aravissos
were very important...

784
01:04:42,284 --> 01:04:45,471
because there couldn't be
any political party interventions...

785
01:04:45,737 --> 01:04:47,637
to this committee.

786
01:04:47,883 --> 01:04:53,005
It was very important, along with
solidarity by other movements.

787
01:04:53,257 --> 01:04:55,430
People in Aravissos were influenced...

788
01:04:55,757 --> 01:04:59,767
because they saw other people
who were interested in our case.

789
01:05:00,515 --> 01:05:06,468
Solidarity made them more sensitive
in view of the problem.

790
01:05:09,348 --> 01:05:12,264
<i>Aravissos' water
is under the control of EYATH.</i>

791
01:05:12,728 --> 01:05:17,441
<i>Locals are ready to cooperate with
city movements against privatization.</i>

792
01:05:20,919 --> 01:05:24,161
K136 took its name by this idea:

793
01:05:24,625 --> 01:05:30,516
If every household in Thessaloniki
that has a water meter...

794
01:05:30,725 --> 01:05:34,408
contributes 136 euros, the citizens
can buy EYATH cooperatively.

795
01:05:34,716 --> 01:05:37,416
Kostas Nikolaou,
Environmentalist, K136 Member

796
01:05:37,921 --> 01:05:39,941
This is why it is called K136.

797
01:05:40,343 --> 01:05:42,008
Zois Polizoidis,
EYATH Workers Union Secretary

798
01:05:42,528 --> 01:05:45,318
They managed to build
8 active cooperatives.

799
01:05:46,801 --> 01:05:51,288
Their greatest success is that
they were an official candidate...

800
01:05:51,648 --> 01:05:55,821
in the competition.

801
01:05:58,108 --> 01:06:01,329
We covered all standards
the competition terms required.

802
01:06:01,640 --> 01:06:03,733
They rejected us.
They threw us out of the second phase.

803
01:06:04,293 --> 01:06:05,870
We asked why. They never told us.

804
01:06:06,329 --> 01:06:08,183
We asked for the session minutes...

805
01:06:08,422 --> 01:06:13,534
who voted for or against K136
and why.

806
01:06:16,150 --> 01:06:17,915
They never gave them to us...

807
01:06:18,156 --> 01:06:21,169
so we went to court and
there's an injunction in process.

808
01:06:22,206 --> 01:06:27,348
<i>The workers union took the initiative
to create SAVE THE WATER platform...</i>

809
01:06:27,659 --> 01:06:29,528
<i>against EYATH privatization.</i>

810
01:06:30,023 --> 01:06:31,789
<i>Its main demand, a referendum.</i>

811
01:06:33,918 --> 01:06:39,087
This referendum initiative
has not yet been implemented.

812
01:06:40,369 --> 01:06:46,008
The truth is that while
municipalities took the decision...

813
01:06:47,505 --> 01:06:50,495
they never tried to carry it out.

814
01:06:50,808 --> 01:06:54,799
Of course there's the obstacle
that although it is allowed by the law...

815
01:06:55,137 --> 01:07:00,541
some presidential decrees are missing,
that should define...

816
01:07:01,262 --> 01:07:04,236
how it should take place.

817
01:07:06,744 --> 01:07:11,468
The other thing is that the central
government does not want it to happen.

818
01:07:12,731 --> 01:07:17,266
We are a new group that wants
to fight for water.

819
01:07:18,026 --> 01:07:19,725
We are called "Water Warriors".

820
01:07:20,087 --> 01:07:24,971
We want to open up to the people
and to get to the streets.

821
01:07:25,149 --> 01:07:27,003
Giorgos Ioakimidis,
Water Warriors Member

822
01:07:27,353 --> 01:07:29,145
We think it is a matter of democracy.

823
01:07:29,345 --> 01:07:32,324
If they cut your water supply
if you can't pay for it...

824
01:07:33,320 --> 01:07:37,022
it is fascism and we can't
let fascism advance.

825
01:07:40,040 --> 01:07:42,957
<i>According to the press,
the Council of State...</i>

826
01:07:43,230 --> 01:07:46,530
<i>has judged that EYATH's privatization
is unlawful.</i>

827
01:07:48,698 --> 01:07:51,746
<i>The judgment has not been published,
though...</i>

828
01:07:51,961 --> 01:07:55,599
<i>and meanwhile the government is
stepping up the privatization procedure.</i>

829
01:07:57,245 --> 01:07:58,529
They have no excuses.

830
01:07:58,933 --> 01:08:00,147
The city movements resist...

831
01:08:00,454 --> 01:08:02,808
the European Commission has
objected to water sellout...

832
01:08:03,166 --> 01:08:07,598
the Council of State has judged
that it cannot be privatized.

833
01:08:08,239 --> 01:08:10,386
They have no arguments
to privatize water.

834
01:08:14,298 --> 01:08:17,828
<i>An international solidarity network
has been built up around the EYATH case...</i>

835
01:08:18,294 --> 01:08:22,113
<i>which includes citizens, unions
and Europarliament members.</i>

836
01:08:23,330 --> 01:08:27,188
<i>We will just mention a valuable
experience from Bolivia.</i>

837
01:08:28,675 --> 01:08:33,155
The IMF went there in 1985 and
initiated a huge privatization program.

838
01:08:33,634 --> 01:08:35,439
Giorgos Archontopoulos,
EYATH Workers Union President

839
01:08:35,936 --> 01:08:38,392
People were collecting rain water
from the tree leaves there...

840
01:08:39,571 --> 01:08:41,933
and the company couldn't calculate
how much it was...

841
01:08:42,152 --> 01:08:45,127
so they imposed a monthly tax
on rain water collection.

842
01:08:45,561 --> 01:08:50,853
This was what made people
start a revolution...

843
01:08:51,390 --> 01:08:53,623
back in 2001 in Cochabamba.

844
01:08:54,096 --> 01:08:55,964
People got killed there
and in the capital city.

845
01:08:57,036 --> 01:09:01,871
They made it, although
the government called in the army.

846
01:09:03,037 --> 01:09:04,709
This is why people got killed.

847
01:09:04,922 --> 01:09:06,219
But they won.

848
01:09:06,549 --> 01:09:11,664
The cultures secretary told us
that they realized...

849
01:09:11,970 --> 01:09:15,292
that if they can win the water war
they can change the whole country.

850
01:09:15,491 --> 01:09:17,526
For them, water
was a matter of dignity.

851
01:09:17,716 --> 01:09:18,968
Five years from then...

852
01:09:19,202 --> 01:09:24,163
a native cocalero, Evo Morales,
became the president of the country.

853
01:09:27,442 --> 01:09:30,241
Northeast Halkidiki
1996 to today

854
01:09:34,731 --> 01:09:37,192
<i>State of siege</i>

855
01:09:37,484 --> 01:09:41,360
<i>In Olympiada and Stratoniki, Canadian
company TVX Gold has been extracting...</i>

856
01:09:41,576 --> 01:09:45,093
<i>using cyanide since 1997.</i>

857
01:09:46,458 --> 01:09:49,890
<i>The citizen reaction was faced
with a dictatorship law...</i>

858
01:09:50,260 --> 01:09:53,544
<i>prohibiting circulation
and public assemblies...</i>

859
01:09:53,805 --> 01:09:56,307
<i>citizen arrests and criminal suits.</i>

860
01:09:59,793 --> 01:10:04,961
<i>When in 2003 the Council of State
judged that cyanide use was illegal...</i>

861
01:10:06,013 --> 01:10:14,173
<i>TVX Gold went bankrupt and was sold
to Dimitris Koutras for 60,000 euro.</i>

862
01:10:17,257 --> 01:10:20,581
I had a conscience problem because
the workers told me...

863
01:10:20,949 --> 01:10:22,973
that there would be no Christmas
for them.

864
01:10:23,193 --> 01:10:25,808
They were 700 people who
hadn't been paid for a year.

865
01:10:26,599 --> 01:10:29,108
"What do you want?", I asked.
"What can I do?".

866
01:10:30,469 --> 01:10:34,684
If we had 2,000 euros each,
we would sort things out, they said.

867
01:10:36,435 --> 01:10:41,427
So I founded Hellas Gold
with 1.5 million of my own money...

868
01:10:42,120 --> 01:10:44,738
and I gave them the money.

869
01:10:46,036 --> 01:10:47,211
We didn't buy the mines.

870
01:10:47,460 --> 01:10:49,079
We got them for free.

871
01:10:49,293 --> 01:10:51,986
We spent 11 million for
the workers' compensations...

872
01:10:52,194 --> 01:10:55,152
because we didn't want
them to be unpaid.

873
01:10:56,448 --> 01:10:58,879
We haven't extracted
not even a gram of gold.

874
01:10:59,256 --> 01:11:01,368
We've worked all those years
in disadvantage.

875
01:11:01,703 --> 01:11:04,394
We constantly raise capital.
Aktor couldn't afford all that.

876
01:11:04,725 --> 01:11:08,015
This is why we diminish
our shares all the time.

877
01:11:09,039 --> 01:11:12,430
<i>After the mine was given away
to Koutras, he sold his shares...</i>

878
01:11:12,647 --> 01:11:15,251
<i>for more than 200 million dollars.</i>

879
01:11:16,535 --> 01:11:20,047
<i>Hellas Gold has been acquitted
by law for any responsibility...</i>

880
01:11:20,226 --> 01:11:24,118
<i>for environmental damages
if the causes are older...</i>

881
01:11:24,392 --> 01:11:26,805
<i>or the contract is cancelled.</i>

882
01:11:32,602 --> 01:11:35,950
<i>Today, the company has began
works without licenses...</i>

883
01:11:36,549 --> 01:11:39,508
<i>but the police keeps record
of those that approach the mountain.</i>

884
01:11:43,629 --> 01:11:47,662
I just want to ask you,
since you've entered private property...

885
01:11:48,303 --> 01:11:50,850
You passed through the mine area.

886
01:11:51,333 --> 01:11:53,115
We used the public forest road.

887
01:11:53,453 --> 01:11:55,642
Yes. It is in the mines,
all that area is private.

888
01:11:55,789 --> 01:11:57,315
We used the forest road.

889
01:11:57,781 --> 01:12:01,992
You can use the forest road,
but you're filming the mines.

890
01:12:04,993 --> 01:12:08,019
I'd like to ask you
not to do that again.

891
01:12:08,306 --> 01:12:09,569
OK, we won't.

892
01:12:10,975 --> 01:12:13,627
Do you have orders to check
who is visiting the mountain?

893
01:12:13,887 --> 01:12:15,215
Everything, yes, anything.

894
01:12:18,656 --> 01:12:20,748
<i>On October 21, 2012...</i>

895
01:12:36,365 --> 01:12:37,844
Repeat order.

896
01:12:58,981 --> 01:13:00,854
<i>Alterthess.gr footage</i>

897
01:13:10,337 --> 01:13:14,589
A driver who had teargas thrown
in his car is accused...

898
01:13:14,846 --> 01:13:18,446
for attempted murder because
he lost control...

899
01:13:19,207 --> 01:13:22,016
just before the car
fell into a ditch.

900
01:13:24,708 --> 01:13:27,270
That day 18 people were arrested.

901
01:13:27,851 --> 01:13:31,483
Before the arrest,
a policeman crushed the leg...

902
01:13:32,302 --> 01:13:34,646
of a 60 year old woman.

903
01:13:35,079 --> 01:13:37,636
Kostas Efthimiou,
Aristotelis City Council Member

904
01:13:40,268 --> 01:13:45,139
The funny thing is that
we were arrested and held overnight...

905
01:13:46,593 --> 01:13:55,615
and then we were accused for insurgency
based on a dictatorship law...

906
01:13:56,940 --> 01:13:59,294
because they couldn't find anything
to accuse us for.

907
01:14:00,250 --> 01:14:05,577
All this never happened, according
to the mass media until February 17, 2013.

908
01:14:07,112 --> 01:14:12,727
<i>Arson in Skouries mining site</i>
This investment offers jobs and tax money.

909
01:14:15,200 --> 01:14:21,981
<i>Nikos Dendias, Public Order Minister</i>
We have to ensure foreign investments.

910
01:14:23,061 --> 01:14:27,570
<i>Since then, propaganda, criminal suits
and repression is increasing.</i>

911
01:14:28,916 --> 01:14:32,163
15 anti-terror squad jeeps
and police buses.

912
01:14:32,786 --> 01:14:36,496
They put people in the buses
and they went to Ierissos.

913
01:14:37,032 --> 01:14:43,405
It was an extraordinary image
of an army invading a village.

914
01:14:44,377 --> 01:14:46,353
Not in the houses!

915
01:14:47,657 --> 01:14:49,201
National TV footage

916
01:14:50,239 --> 01:14:52,193
There are children in that house!

917
01:14:54,820 --> 01:14:56,790
They hit us from there.

918
01:14:57,027 --> 01:14:59,975
This hill was full of
Special Police Forces men.

919
01:15:01,232 --> 01:15:04,383
They shot teargas in the primary school,
in the coffee shops of the village.

920
01:15:13,152 --> 01:15:15,020
Giannis Psiliagos,
Ierissos High School Teacher

921
01:15:15,572 --> 01:15:17,933
The police forces had just arrived and
we heard bangs and then teargas came.

922
01:15:18,493 --> 01:15:20,536
Many children had respirational problems.

923
01:15:24,739 --> 01:15:29,013
They went to a neighbor,
who lives just by my home...

924
01:15:29,961 --> 01:15:35,497
at 3 am, they pulled down the door
and they entered his home.

925
01:15:36,004 --> 01:15:39,247
His children were sleeping
and they took him from his bed.

926
01:15:42,261 --> 01:15:44,738
How long did he stay in jail?
6 months?

927
01:15:44,969 --> 01:15:46,151
No, it was 3 months.

928
01:15:55,363 --> 01:15:58,583
They were held there
and they were questioned...

929
01:15:59,252 --> 01:16:01,647
in a basement, being beaten, etc.

930
01:16:08,310 --> 01:16:12,323
The funny thing, if there's
something funny about this case...

931
01:16:12,824 --> 01:16:16,235
is that there are people
who are accused for that day...

932
01:16:16,530 --> 01:16:19,467
while they weren't here.

933
01:16:19,925 --> 01:16:22,177
Some of them were in Thessaloniki,
others in Mount Athos...

934
01:16:22,755 --> 01:16:25,191
others in church because
there was a ceremony that night.

935
01:16:25,523 --> 01:16:27,862
Irini Markou,
Ierissos resident

936
01:16:33,147 --> 01:16:35,368
The police is not protecting us
from the residents.

937
01:16:35,831 --> 01:16:42,045
They protect us from Ierissos residents
who are collaborating with a number of people.

938
01:16:43,874 --> 01:16:45,422
I don't want to talk about it.
I know.

939
01:16:47,007 --> 01:16:49,314
When Keratea was over,
it moved up there.

940
01:16:50,366 --> 01:16:52,015
Resident reactions?

941
01:16:54,505 --> 01:16:56,085
Wearing masks?

942
01:16:58,071 --> 01:17:01,955
I was summoned because they say
I prohibited traffic.

943
01:17:03,386 --> 01:17:09,136
That's why the mountain was saved,
because I stopped the vehicles...

944
01:17:10,406 --> 01:17:12,700
and they didn't return to work,
that's it.

945
01:17:13,251 --> 01:17:16,435
Your son has also been summoned
for other reasons, right?

946
01:17:16,658 --> 01:17:22,234
Yes, he got many of them,
he's luckier than me.

947
01:17:23,047 --> 01:17:24,853
Anna Polyza
Megali Panagia resident

948
01:17:25,248 --> 01:17:30,587
When I got the brief
I told the boy who brought it to me:

949
01:17:30,858 --> 01:17:33,881
"Am I accused for
all those things, son?"

950
01:17:34,343 --> 01:17:37,783
It was inconceivable,
even for a terrorist organization.

951
01:17:40,800 --> 01:17:42,501
Inconceivable!

952
01:17:42,788 --> 01:17:46,994
There have been interrogations
of under-age persons without a lawyer...

953
01:17:47,983 --> 01:17:49,464
like with everybody else...

954
01:17:49,691 --> 01:17:51,516
but also without their parents.

955
01:17:51,613 --> 01:17:53,618
Eleanna Ioannidou,
Lawyer

956
01:17:54,350 --> 01:17:56,461
It's the first time in Greece
they collected DNA samples...

957
01:17:57,338 --> 01:18:00,220
in such a wide way
and totally irregularly.

958
01:18:02,148 --> 01:18:06,008
<i>Nationwide solidarity is also
under attack.</i>

959
01:18:06,209 --> 01:18:08,514
<i>Members of groups that organized
events for information...</i>

960
01:18:08,744 --> 01:18:10,126
<i>and financial support...</i>

961
01:18:10,688 --> 01:18:14,343
<i>are now accused to be financing
a terrorist organization.</i>

962
01:18:19,635 --> 01:18:25,830
Having talked with an anarchist
makes you a terrorist.

963
01:18:27,124 --> 01:18:31,494
We haven't seen such a beliefs trial
for many years in this country.

964
01:18:32,377 --> 01:18:34,701
This is a beliefs trial
on a felony level.

965
01:18:35,636 --> 01:18:40,011
The works that are going on now
under the radar...

966
01:18:41,613 --> 01:18:48,042
show us that there's an attempt
to make the situation irreversible.

967
01:18:49,145 --> 01:18:51,874
In such a case...

968
01:18:52,342 --> 01:18:56,046
where what you're fighting for
is already destroyed...

969
01:18:56,534 --> 01:19:00,038
it is discouraging, in a way.

970
01:19:01,200 --> 01:19:05,276
We have a hard time now,
we've lost our smiles.

971
01:19:08,986 --> 01:19:11,124
People are not like they used to be.

972
01:19:11,646 --> 01:19:13,934
Ierissos was a happy town.

973
01:19:15,081 --> 01:19:16,899
They're strong, of course.

974
01:19:17,108 --> 01:19:20,102
They set the rules
and they go after people.

975
01:19:21,337 --> 01:19:22,665
But then what should we do?

976
01:19:22,942 --> 01:19:27,877
Raise our hands and say
"Come on, do whatever you like"?

977
01:19:29,077 --> 01:19:30,863
I don't think it's right.

978
01:19:32,593 --> 01:19:33,983
No way.

979
01:19:34,370 --> 01:19:36,514
We've never thought of giving up.

980
01:19:37,213 --> 01:19:40,631
We know this is a fair struggle.

981
01:19:41,640 --> 01:19:45,030
Our conscience drives us
to this struggle.

982
01:19:46,047 --> 01:19:50,344
They're after youngsters mainly.
They're afraid of them.

983
01:19:52,363 --> 01:19:55,290
We haven't suddenly turned into
an ecologists' society.

984
01:19:55,922 --> 01:19:59,492
We are fighting for our basic needs.

985
01:19:59,848 --> 01:20:01,619
Water is freedom.

986
01:20:08,175 --> 01:20:11,012
Asopos river
2000 to today

987
01:20:33,932 --> 01:20:37,564
There's intimidation too,
you know what SLAPPs are.

988
01:20:38,238 --> 01:20:42,318
They sue you just to get you
into trouble with the judicial system.

989
01:20:42,599 --> 01:20:44,774
For them it's nothing to send
an extrajudicial letter...

990
01:20:45,025 --> 01:20:46,614
or summon you.

991
01:20:47,337 --> 01:20:49,456
They play games, they intimidate.

992
01:20:49,914 --> 01:20:51,654
Thanasis Panteloglou,
Chemical Engineer - Biotechnologist

993
01:20:52,087 --> 01:20:54,074
Popular intimidation
is a tool used in Greece today.

994
01:20:54,274 --> 01:20:57,255
Layoffs, selective layoffs too.

995
01:20:58,784 --> 01:21:01,823
Then there's those thugs
with black clothes...

996
01:21:02,163 --> 01:21:05,663
who came to replace other workers
with a daily wage of 18 euro...

997
01:21:06,068 --> 01:21:08,465
and they are silent.

998
01:21:10,069 --> 01:21:14,219
In 2008-09, there was a quarrel
in a public space.

999
01:21:15,139 --> 01:21:19,945
TV crews were filming
while some bullies...

1000
01:21:20,354 --> 01:21:24,035
of the ministry of health
threatened us with guns.

1001
01:21:25,793 --> 01:21:29,112
This quarrel was caught on camera.

1002
01:21:29,453 --> 01:21:32,105
They were beating people on camera.

1003
01:21:32,331 --> 01:21:35,522
The priest ended up in the hospital
with broken arms.

1004
01:21:47,416 --> 01:21:53,019
In many cases, our "enemies"
decided to use violence.

1005
01:21:53,397 --> 01:21:55,078
Giannis Ikonomides,
Priest, Inofyta

1006
01:21:55,326 --> 01:21:59,337
They used defamation or threats
to end our fair struggle.

1007
01:22:01,438 --> 01:22:09,436
However, it's hard to stop
a struggle related...

1008
01:22:09,649 --> 01:22:13,334
to the quality of water used
to offer milk to your child.

1009
01:22:14,041 --> 01:22:17,895
Giannis Ikonomides archive footage

1010
01:22:26,581 --> 01:22:31,999
We set a principle from the beginning.

1011
01:22:32,935 --> 01:22:35,149
We would use all available institutions.

1012
01:22:35,502 --> 01:22:38,159
We weren't bullying or shouting.

1013
01:22:39,355 --> 01:22:43,424
We sent letters with specific requests,
we were registering our appeals...

1014
01:22:44,664 --> 01:22:47,783
we always mentioned the law
we expected to be applied.

1015
01:22:48,743 --> 01:22:50,560
Christos Panagopoulos,
Oropos Federation President

1016
01:22:50,790 --> 01:22:53,686
The decision of Environment Committee
of the European Union...

1017
01:22:54,047 --> 01:22:57,981
after a complaint by the Oropos'
association federation...

1018
01:22:58,362 --> 01:22:59,997
and the ITAP of Inofyta...

1019
01:23:00,433 --> 01:23:03,396
in the Committee of Human Rights
and Human Health...

1020
01:23:03,941 --> 01:23:09,505
has condemned the government
for not proceeding with depollution.

1021
01:23:10,852 --> 01:23:17,220
So we don't have to prove to a Greek
court that this area is polluted...

1022
01:23:17,967 --> 01:23:20,339
or that our health is damaged.

1023
01:23:20,861 --> 01:23:22,436
This is taken for granted.

1024
01:23:22,760 --> 01:23:26,562
The Greek court has to decide
the amount of compensation.

1025
01:23:27,366 --> 01:23:30,701
The defendants' attorneys
asked us where we get the money.

1026
01:23:33,716 --> 01:23:38,147
They had 15 lawyers
and we only had one.

1027
01:23:39,771 --> 01:23:43,442
We're paying them from our money,
I told the lawyer.

1028
01:23:43,915 --> 01:23:46,245
We want to save our health.

1029
01:23:47,795 --> 01:23:49,949
Legal ways are problematic too.

1030
01:23:50,439 --> 01:23:51,949
Things go very slow.

1031
01:23:52,251 --> 01:23:55,663
The Asopos trial is being
postponed for a long time now.

1032
01:23:55,930 --> 01:23:59,695
The case began in 2007
and now in late 2013...

1033
01:24:00,061 --> 01:24:03,900
we're still at the first trial.

1034
01:24:05,625 --> 01:24:08,327
This is an environmental demolition.

1035
01:24:09,336 --> 01:24:11,077
The citizens, the associations...

1036
01:24:11,355 --> 01:24:13,653
myself as the president
of the federation...

1037
01:24:14,747 --> 01:24:20,053
will keep on fighting
with harsher means.

1038
01:24:21,161 --> 01:24:22,603
We'll block the river.

1039
01:24:23,136 --> 01:24:25,435
We'll make extreme moves.
We can't go on like that.

1040
01:24:27,145 --> 01:24:33,051
We have decided in assemblies
to go block the river. It's over.

1041
01:24:35,041 --> 01:24:37,140
Is this what they want?

1042
01:24:37,566 --> 01:24:43,411
We're loyal citizens.
Do they want us to go extreme?

1043
01:24:43,974 --> 01:24:46,414
It can't go on like that.
I wish it could.

1044
01:24:46,689 --> 01:24:48,268
Cancer took over.

1045
01:24:48,698 --> 01:24:51,106
I lost my own child...

1046
01:24:51,589 --> 01:24:55,559
because of hexavalent chromium.

1047
01:24:59,834 --> 01:25:03,930
There's no family around here
without a cancer patient.

1048
01:25:14,913 --> 01:25:18,651
This country has two products:
There's sun and sea...

1049
01:25:19,480 --> 01:25:22,090
so there's agriculture
and tourism.

1050
01:25:22,882 --> 01:25:26,520
If you take down these two things
we'll have to immigrate.

1051
01:25:27,365 --> 01:25:29,395
So how shall we lead our lives?

1052
01:25:30,015 --> 01:25:33,424
Should we look for other places?
Are there any available?

1053
01:25:35,968 --> 01:25:37,597
Pollution and unemployment.

1054
01:25:37,794 --> 01:25:40,757
I remember a sign at a factory
that wrote...

1055
01:25:40,964 --> 01:25:42,975
"Unemployment is
the worst pollution".

1056
01:25:43,436 --> 01:25:47,668
In our area we've lost our jobs
and we've lost our health too.

1057
01:25:49,545 --> 01:25:52,732
People are not idiots.

1058
01:25:53,959 --> 01:25:56,229
When they toast they say
"To your health".

1059
01:25:56,983 --> 01:25:58,903
They don't say "To your daily wage".

1060
01:25:59,273 --> 01:26:01,414
My idea is a wage and health.

1061
01:26:07,067 --> 01:26:09,517
Apopigadi
2001 to today

1062
01:26:18,077 --> 01:26:21,719
<i>In Apopigadi in 2001 the company,
the forest authorities...</i>

1063
01:26:22,059 --> 01:26:24,586
<i>and the municipalities took
locals' private property.</i>

1064
01:26:25,733 --> 01:26:29,917
<i>The forest authority claimed
that the locals' properties were a forest.</i>

1065
01:26:30,264 --> 01:26:33,855
<i>The obligatory public announcement
was held under other names...</i>

1066
01:26:34,224 --> 01:26:37,632
<i>in other municipalities
so the owners would never find out...</i>

1067
01:26:37,998 --> 01:26:42,705
<i>and raise objections. This is how
their property became public.</i>

1068
01:26:47,800 --> 01:26:50,055
Some relatives called us from Chania...

1069
01:26:50,424 --> 01:26:53,478
to tell us that Heraklion University
would like to send some students here...

1070
01:26:54,349 --> 01:26:56,975
to install a wind meter
and check the wind power available.

1071
01:26:57,465 --> 01:27:00,530
Antonis Michelakis,
Prasse resident, Apopigadi

1072
01:27:04,284 --> 01:27:07,001
We were tricked and the wind meter
was installed.

1073
01:27:07,638 --> 01:27:10,023
We didn't know what it was for.

1074
01:27:10,261 --> 01:27:12,322
The area was passed down
to the state.

1075
01:27:12,563 --> 01:27:15,103
Then they went to the forest authorities
who asked why they wanted that...

1076
01:27:15,444 --> 01:27:17,624
and they said they want
to install wind turbines.

1077
01:27:17,831 --> 01:27:19,746
The rent for 100 years
was 93,000 euros.

1078
01:27:20,417 --> 01:27:22,717
When the bulldozers came,
the villages were in unrest.

1079
01:27:23,012 --> 01:27:28,106
Nobody asked us before getting
on our properties to build roads...

1080
01:27:28,684 --> 01:27:31,092
and destroy the grassland.

1081
01:27:31,451 --> 01:27:33,423
The company told us they don't recognize us...

1082
01:27:33,623 --> 01:27:35,234
and that they had a contract
with the state.

1083
01:27:35,434 --> 01:27:37,818
Where did the state find
the property titles to sell?

1084
01:27:37,994 --> 01:27:39,828
We're counting on that to get them back.

1085
01:27:40,522 --> 01:27:42,423
We have contracts but they don't.

1086
01:27:42,685 --> 01:27:45,057
The state should tell us how they got them.

1087
01:27:45,710 --> 01:27:48,637
The trial will be held
on February 27.

1088
01:27:49,309 --> 01:27:50,814
I believe we will win.

1089
01:27:51,005 --> 01:27:52,915
I can't think of another decision...

1090
01:27:53,138 --> 01:27:55,770
because our homes and all our property
are on the same contracts.

1091
01:27:56,541 --> 01:28:01,342
Some poor people who can't make
their living give in.

1092
01:28:01,616 --> 01:28:03,497
They offer them money.

1093
01:28:03,842 --> 01:28:05,829
This is very disturbing.

1094
01:28:06,034 --> 01:28:11,478
They sign the papers for 200-300 euros
and this is considered a compensation.

1095
01:28:12,706 --> 01:28:16,217
This is not a rent. Those people think
this is a rent for the land.

1096
01:28:16,918 --> 01:28:23,006
They let them keep their land until they won't
be able to pursue their rights in the courts.

1097
01:28:23,792 --> 01:28:25,827
They've sued us 60 times...

1098
01:28:26,159 --> 01:28:29,905
because we prevented the bulldozers
from getting through.

1099
01:28:30,170 --> 01:28:35,746
The company lawyers were coming
with the police and the district attorney.

1100
01:28:37,220 --> 01:28:38,707
After the arrests...

1101
01:28:38,980 --> 01:28:44,562
after three years of mobilization,
they managed to step in.

1102
01:28:47,020 --> 01:28:50,093
But they had to use
constant police presence.

1103
01:28:51,002 --> 01:28:53,448
The policemen never left that area.

1104
01:28:54,141 --> 01:28:56,324
The police protected them, protected
the interests of multinational companies.

1105
01:28:57,094 --> 01:28:59,853
Spyros Panagiotakis, University student,
Palea Roumata resident

1106
01:29:00,569 --> 01:29:01,809
This is how they managed to stay there.

1107
01:29:03,080 --> 01:29:05,184
It's all about injustice.
Injustice has no limits.

1108
01:29:05,433 --> 01:29:08,907
It's a very bad thing.

1109
01:29:10,556 --> 01:29:12,675
They made the laws their way.

1110
01:29:15,304 --> 01:29:19,770
As that wise old man said
the laws are for rich people.

1111
01:29:21,370 --> 01:29:24,656
In the past, someone would kill his
brother because communism...

1112
01:29:24,886 --> 01:29:26,549
would deprive people of their property.

1113
01:29:26,782 --> 01:29:29,501
Today capitalism, which is based
on the idea of private property...

1114
01:29:29,745 --> 01:29:32,353
grabs the small land plots
of village people...

1115
01:29:33,154 --> 01:29:36,011
who have their herds of goats...

1116
01:29:38,345 --> 01:29:41,170
and they bring the police
to have you arrested.

1117
01:29:42,132 --> 01:29:45,310
They've managed to silence
electronic media.

1118
01:29:45,709 --> 01:29:49,500
My complaint is that on the day
of our trial...

1119
01:29:50,909 --> 01:29:57,283
six newscasts mentioned a case
of a beaten dog.

1120
01:29:59,284 --> 01:30:04,149
Nobody said a word on us
and the attempt to have us jailed.

1121
01:30:18,694 --> 01:30:21,362
I'm one of the defendants.

1122
01:30:22,026 --> 01:30:27,068
We were just protesting,
but they called the police.

1123
01:30:28,940 --> 01:30:31,320
Fragios Panagiotakis,
Farmer, Palea Roumata resident

1124
01:30:33,048 --> 01:30:37,110
The police treated us as criminals.

1125
01:30:38,482 --> 01:30:40,146
They had just one eye.

1126
01:30:40,361 --> 01:30:45,655
They wouldn't see the company's
thugs who held batons.

1127
01:30:46,142 --> 01:30:48,376
They only saw us as criminals.

1128
01:30:49,199 --> 01:30:54,065
Thugs and criminals
were lawful...

1129
01:30:54,983 --> 01:30:57,116
and we, the locals, were illegal for them.

1130
01:30:57,601 --> 01:30:59,422
They brought some thugs.

1131
01:31:01,536 --> 01:31:05,383
They hit old men in their own land.

1132
01:31:07,095 --> 01:31:11,227
They threw old men on the ground
and they stepped on their necks.

1133
01:31:13,320 --> 01:31:15,696
They attacked me
with intention to kill me.

1134
01:31:15,971 --> 01:31:18,264
Some other villagers saved me.

1135
01:31:21,959 --> 01:31:25,855
<i>Forester Kostas Pentarakis
was the only forest authority employee...</i>

1136
01:31:26,111 --> 01:31:28,068
<i>who had a negative opinion.</i>

1137
01:31:28,293 --> 01:31:31,431
<i>He had claimed that he'd never
allow this project.</i>

1138
01:31:32,999 --> 01:31:35,658
<i>However, when he was found dead
the case was closed quickly...</i>

1139
01:31:35,889 --> 01:31:38,834
<i>without being solved, while
some people told around...</i>

1140
01:31:39,242 --> 01:31:41,364
<i>that he had psychological problems.</i>

1141
01:31:42,741 --> 01:31:45,129
We're in trouble caused by evil punks.

1142
01:31:45,325 --> 01:31:47,890
We can't solve the problem peacefully.

1143
01:31:50,106 --> 01:31:51,982
A fire is needed.

1144
01:31:54,016 --> 01:31:58,241
When it will start burning
we'll become a second Syria.

1145
01:32:01,573 --> 01:32:04,527
Poor people's children will get killed...

1146
01:32:04,771 --> 01:32:08,248
while rich people's children will be abroad.

1147
01:32:20,847 --> 01:32:23,050
-What is water?
-What is water?

1148
01:32:24,110 --> 01:32:26,404
Water is the main reason we rose up.

1149
01:32:26,953 --> 01:32:30,417
Water is the first thing
we get in contact with...

1150
01:32:30,747 --> 01:32:32,662
when we're in our mom's belly.

1151
01:32:41,441 --> 01:32:42,809
That's why we should resist.

1152
01:32:43,154 --> 01:32:46,005
We should realize
that this land is sacred...

1153
01:32:46,207 --> 01:32:48,795
and we shouldn't pollute it
because we won't be able to live here.

1154
01:32:52,239 --> 01:32:55,184
<i>Halkidiki you're in a holy fight</i>

1155
01:33:04,492 --> 01:33:07,585
<i>Crete stands in solidarity with you</i>

1156
01:33:20,348 --> 01:33:22,551
I'm from Sfakia.

1157
01:33:22,912 --> 01:33:26,734
There was a program
for 100 wind turbines.

1158
01:33:30,702 --> 01:33:33,432
They won't make it.
We'll use our weapons if needed.

1159
01:33:47,362 --> 01:33:50,339
There's no peaceful reaction
for them.

1160
01:33:50,671 --> 01:33:53,570
They consider enemy
all those who react.

1161
01:33:54,058 --> 01:33:56,479
The use the courts
and any other means they have.

1162
01:34:00,605 --> 01:34:03,548
Water is life.
It is life.

1163
01:34:04,614 --> 01:34:08,541
It is also the place used
by people who prefer...

1164
01:34:09,216 --> 01:34:11,180
being cremated rather than
be eaten by worms...

1165
01:34:11,464 --> 01:34:12,605
to have their ash dispensed.

1166
01:34:18,286 --> 01:34:20,801
<i>Dear Sirs, Madams and children.</i>

1167
01:34:21,911 --> 01:34:27,813
<i>Tonight we'll watch the show
"Karagiozis as a chloriator"</i>.

1168
01:34:28,975 --> 01:34:31,580
<i>It has a little bit of chloride,
lots of beating...</i>

1169
01:34:32,070 --> 01:34:33,788
<i>and much more laugh.</i>

1170
01:34:35,019 --> 01:34:36,798
Without water
there's no beer too.

1171
01:34:37,153 --> 01:34:38,715
So water is beer.

1172
01:34:39,298 --> 01:34:40,795
Water is love.

1173
01:34:41,651 --> 01:34:44,397
Water is life. Just like that.

1174
01:35:04,436 --> 01:35:07,146
<i>Freedom to struggling people!</i>

1175
01:35:08,747 --> 01:35:11,306
Ierissos, November 6, 2013

1176
01:35:16,190 --> 01:35:21,535
We were really happy because
the other two boys were released.

1177
01:35:30,774 --> 01:35:33,637
We couldn't be happy with the
first two releases...

1178
01:35:34,146 --> 01:35:36,196
because we knew there were
two more boys in jail.

1179
01:35:52,137 --> 01:35:55,477
We will fight
for as long as we can.

1180
01:36:12,751 --> 01:36:16,427
<i>We are the first drops
of the storm coming</i>