What water is?
Water is everything.
What water is? It comes just after oxygen.
This is water.
Water is life.
Water is power!
-What is water? -It's cold!
75% of the Blue Planet of our solar system, our Earth, is water.
70-90% of a human body is also made of water.
Fresh water is the most precious water...
but it is just 3% of the total water available on Earth.
Only a third of that 3% is directly available.
Water is not being destroyed and recreated.
We may consume most water...
and even overconsume, especially in developed countries...
but the same quantity returns to nature in the form of waste.
So water is eternal, it is ancient.
Sotiris Tsiouris, Chemistry and Environment Professor, Thessaloniki
Sure. H2O is an inorganic compound. It is not like carbon.
We are going to run out of oil at some point.
When it is being burnt, it turns to carbon dioxide.
Water state changes, it doesn't turn into something else.
Sovereign debt is used to blackmail governments into privatizing blue gold.
In summer 2013, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras...
discussed with Nestle representatives on new investments in Greece.
Nestle CEO has said that the idea that water is a common good is radical.
How?
When we say water is a basic good...
we mean that each and every human should have the possibility to drink water.
Alexis Benos, Medical School Professor, Thessaloniki
So there should be no constraints to water supply.
You can't say that it should be given at a price, a high price...
because you exclude an important part of the population...
which in the past resided in the poor South...
but now they are in our country too, with all that poverty and unemployment.
WAteRdrops
The first step towards privatization was made in 2001.
Thessaloniki Water Company (EYATH) entered the stock market like other public benefit companies...
...in order to raise some capital.
Until a week ago it had a reserve of 42 million Euros.
Giorgos Archontopoulos, EYATH Workers Union President
Last week the law that arranged the state's debt to EYATH added another 13 million to its reserves.
We're talking about 55 million of hot money, no bonds or loans.
It has no loans, it owes nobody, it is not subsidized by the state...
and it has 20 million Euros net profit per year.
Why is it being sold?
Because it is a fillet.
Nikos Papadakis, EYATH President
You don't ask the butcher for two kilos of bones. You want meat.
I think that we shouldn't sell fillets.
We shouldn't sell the goose that lays golden eggs.
The buyer will get his money back in two years time.
Why shouldn't this money go to a publicly owned company forever?
What do we sell? Assets that can be sold.
We're in a bankruptcy situation.
The memorandum was designed by those who lent money to us...
to prevent us from collapsing.
The money expected from the company being sold...
is a drop in the ocean of debt.
We've lowered the costs but there have been extra abridgements.
You have to take into account that wages were lowered by 35%.
Our workforce has been diminished.
We should get serious and act in order to take things in our hands.
We have to proceed to a privatization. It is a sacred case.
A large part of EYATH has already been privatized.
Most company sections have been given out to contractors...
or they collaborate with contractors.
Most contracts are given to Aktor company...
which is also a potential buyer along with French multinational SUEZ.
Aktor already has these contracts, both in Athens and Thessaloniki.
In Athens' Water and Sewage Company it's more serious.
They extended the sewage treatment factory contract for five years.
This competition concluded just a few days ago.
They also have contracts with us.
I don't think it's wrong for Aktor or any private contractor to have them.
Dimitris Koutras, president of Aktor talked to us on his company's participation...
in the EYATH competition, without consenting to appear on camera.
In Thessaloniki we have 150 people working.
If EYATH is privatized, we should leave.
We care about our business and our people, shouldn't we?
So we participate in a scheme with a really wealthy company.
We don't have enough money to buy it ourselves.
Don't think that we go for maximum profit.
We are just trying to survive.
I would support a cooperation with a municipal company.
The competition is for water management...
and sewage management.
Is sewage a holy gift? Is it a public good?
They're selling the use of water.
The private company will earn money from water consumption.
Giannis Krestenitis, Hydraylics and Environment Professor, Thessaloniki
The water system maintenance and extension...
stays with the Greek state.
So we're going to pay for it...
while the company will only have profits from water sales...
which can be huge.
This is stupid!
The fixed assets, the dam stays with you...
the water stays with you and the company buys it.
I have this volume, I sell it for that price.
We take it from the refinery and manage it from there.
In cases where companies were privatized in Europe and elsewhere...
the water prices surged.
In some extreme cases they were 8 times higher than before privatization.
In many cases there has been a degradation of water quality.
Germs were found in the water.
How will the citizens of Thessaloniki benefit...
from the sale of EYATH?
They won't benefit, they will lose.
Depending on the offer given for the..., it shall...
But I believe they will have better control over the services...
because state control is easily imposed on a private entity...
than on another state entity.
We, as Aktor, are completely indifferent...
if Thessaloniki or Athens water companies are privatized or not.
In the case they're privatized, we will be there...
because we don't want to lose this contract for our people.
This is it. We will be there, either it's privatized or not.
EYATH privatization has some unseen aspects.
We asked the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF)...
is they knew that every shop in Thessaloniki...
from the smallest one to the big industries...
has to seek a license from EYATH for its sewage...
and they said they knew nothing about it.
All city development will be in the hands of a private company.
It's not only that the cost for the license may rise...
but it's up to them to decide if you'll get a license...
for an industry, a business, a shop.
All these are given out to the private company.
The biggest partner of Aktor is Suez...
the second bigger company in the world in water and sewage treatment business.
Suez is also in the energy business via Gas de France Suez...
who runs the first private natural gas facility in Thiva, Greece...
along with Greek partner TERNA.
TERNA is also a candidate in the EYATH competition.
It's not unusual to see water multinationals to do energy business.
This is the only clear mention of water in the Memorandum.
A law should be introduced to have water resources management...
turned over to an independent entity.
Climate change is the reason renewable energy projects...
are pushed all over Greece.
Now companies ask for water...
which is considered an energy reserve to develop hybrid stations.
Hybrid systems are a system of projects.
Vana Sfakianaki, Architect Network against RE Industries
Usually there are two tanks, like well-known lake reservoirs...
which are situated in different heights...
so as to be used as a hydroelectric project.
Water falls from the upper to the lower reservoir...
in order to produce electric power...
and then it returns to the upper by the use of normal power grid.
It's important to note that the return is powered by the grid.
There's always an interdependency of technologies.
These two reservoirs is one part of the project.
Usually these investments include one or more wind farms...
situated in various places and connected to the power grid.
The grid is fed by all kinds of power technologies...
from normal power factories too.
This project is made for them.
Current power factories that use oil, coal or natural gas...
work around the clock to provide stability to the power grid.
Renewable energy companies are being paid even when they don't offer power...
by the tax money of an energy consumption tax...
which recently was judged as unconstitutional.
Some renewable energy technologies need water.
These are the cases of hybrid and solar thermal technologies...
which demand water coming from bores.
The solar thermal parks are developed on hundreds of acres...
and require thousands of tons of water...
to wash the mirrors and for the refrigeration system.
These industries require constant water flow.
They are not closed systems that can reuse a certain quantity of water.
Kostis Diamianakis, Farmer Environmental Microbiology PhD
For example, one of the solar thermal stations that have been licensed...
in the Sitia area, asks for a minimum water supply by the municipality...
of 110,000 cubic meters of water per year.
The power factories that are proposed for the Sitia municipality area...
will use bores for their water supply...
which means bores in depth of hundreds of meters...
into the aquifer of one of Europe's driest areas.
Often, public infrastructure like dams is given out to private entities...
in order to be used as water reservoirs.
There's a perception that water reaching the sea is lost water.
It is argued by people involved in water utilization...
for energy, irrigation or water supply.
Giannis Krestenitis, Hydraylics and Environment Professor, Thessaloniki
This is obviously wrong.
Water is not lost when it reaches the sea...
because it is needed for sea life.
It balances sea water both physically and chemically...
especially regarding salt level and outfalls.
If there were no outfalls...
many sea animals wouldn't have a place to reproduce themselves.
Due to the lack of fresh water in outfalls and deltas...
and the usual overpumping of water due to agriculture or habitation...
sea water enters and salts underground water reserves.
Sotiris Tsiouris, Chemistry and Environment Professor, Thessaloniki
The Potamon Dam in Rethimno has already been turned over to TERNA...
to be used as a water reservoir for the hybrid project they are developing.
In Chania, Valsamiotis Dam is under construction.
Its cost is 8 times the cost of a water saving project...
which would save a dam per year in water quantity.
It is said that a private power company is interested in using this dam too.
Someone who manages a dam in order to produce power in most cases...
is considered owner of the water used to produce that energy.
Populations living nearby hybrid projects...
do not have the right to access and use that water.
Supporters of hybrid and wind farms present them...
as a continuation of traditional water mills...
and small scale hydroelectric plants.
50 years ago, this was George Kanoutakis' water mill.
All machines were powered by water.
He milled olives, cut wood and milled wheat with them.
The Crete-wide mobilization against industrial renewable energy projects...
had one root: mount Apopigadi in Chania...
and a top-class student who missed some exams to inform his people.
Apopigadi took its name from its springs and rills.
Its medicinal water reaches the Libyan sea.
There are the medicinal springs of Temenia and Pina...
that reach down to Paleochora. This mountain is full of springs and rills.
Spyros Panagiotakis, University student, Palea Roumata resident
It's obvious that the first step to grab natural environment...
is to build the proper disguise, so called "green development".
Then you can mangle the mountains, turn them into plots...
control wind energy...
control water with hydroelectric and hybrid projects.
There's no guarantee that the fresh water won't be used in some other way...
at some point in the future. You're a multinational conglomerate.
In Apopigadi, Mousoura Wind Company was licensed to install 3 wind turbines.
Then they asked to build a hybrid project, with new wind turbines...
and water reservoirs of 80,000 cubic meters in an area of frequent earthquakes.
How could we trust them?
They said they would install 3 wind turbines and they wouldn't mess with water.
Now they have asked for licenses for hybrid and hydroelectric projects...
in order to drill all around Apopigadi.
The company study predicts that there'll be water leaks of 30,000 cubic meters per year.
The reservoirs will be filled by 600 meter deep bores into the underground aquifer.
If a bore gives more water than what's needed...
what is going to happen with the rest of it?
We are very concerned about that...
because it gives an idea of forthcoming privatization.
We often read or hear investors say...
and this is usually passed to the media...
that the state and the municipalities don't have money and they are no use...
so private investors offer to contribute to irrigation and water supply works.
We repeatedly tried to talk with company representatives...
but they refused referring to the negative propaganda against them.
The mother company behind the Apopigadi project...
and other projects in Crete is French multinational EDF...
second in the world in nuclear power business.
EDF has participated in a joint venture with French multinational Veolia...
the largest water company in the world.
This is the map of current plans of wind, hybrid and geothermic projects...
based on licenses issued by the Regulatory Authority for Energy.
Skouries, Chalkidiki. Here, on mount Kakavos...
we find the aquifer that supplies water to all Eastern Chalkidiki villages.
This is where a new gold and copper mine is now being built by Hellas Gold company.
95% of this company belongs to Canadian multinational Eldorado Gold...
and 5% to Greek construction company Aktor.
Do you want to say it in simple words? This place has been blacklisted.
Sarantis Dimitriadis, Geology Professor, Thessaloniki
When there was a negotiation on water management in Central Macedonia...
I was there when the Environment Ministry executive told us...
"We see water either as potable and used by people..."
"or as intended for industrial use".
"We have decided that this water is for industrial use".
What do the government and the company know that is being hidden from citizens?
There's a problem.
Konstantinos Katsifarakis, Hydraylics and Environment Professor, Thessaloniki
In order to extract the minerals water level must lower down.
You can't have the minerals in the underground water...
or to have underground water enter the excavation area.
In Skouries, the water level should be lowered by 700 meters.
They will make 9 drillings around the extraction site.
Kyriakos Panagiotopoulos Edaphology Professor, Thessaloniki
It will start from around 700 meters. The height there is 685 meters, I think.
They'll start from there and reach to 140 meters lower than sea level.
Giannis Krestenitis, Hydraylics and Environment Professor, Thessaloniki
Since the pressure will decrease...
the sea pressure will lead sea water into the aquifer.
In the environmental effects study, they say...
that the drainage cone, the area the underground water level will decrease...
is going to be 1440 hectares.
The destruction of the forest above the drainage cone is considered certain.
This is where a vicious circle begins...
since the forest itself helps the production of water and ground.
Drilling is just the first phase.
Then there's the mineral extraction from the ground level...
with an open pit of almost 1 km diameter.
There's going to be a ground level extraction for the first time.
This means they'll use 4 to 6 tons of explosives per 24 hours.
The dust will contain heavy metals which are toxic to all organisms.
Heavy metals are harmless when they are in the ground...
but when they get in contact with oxygen or rainwater...
they activate and become solvent and so they become toxic.
This dust will pollute everything in its course of hundreds of kilometers.
Just think that we often have dust from North Africa...
which travels a thousand kilometers or more.
This dust will destroy bees too.
I hadn't realized that, but they are right to say...
that there's no land without bees.
The extraction site of Skouries is under development...
just 900 meters from Megali Panagia village.
Nestor Nestoros, Megali Panagia resident
There were kilometers of drilling just above Megali Panagia.
In spring 2011, if I recall right...
the village had no more water.
I live here for 53 years.
Anna Polyza Megali Panagia resident
We have always drunk tap water. Now we buy water.
It's sad to live in the mountains and buy potable water.
Why do you buy water?
Because it stinks, you can't drink it.
The company study talks about pumping 700 cubic meters of water per hour.
Half of it is needed for the mineral treatment.
It is mentioned that the rest will be pushed back to the aquifer.
All this without mentioning chemical use or the final mineral processing.
We tried to talk with Hellas Gold representatives but they denied...
referring to the negative propaganda against them.
We had a short discussion on that with Aktor president Mr. Dimitris Koutras...
which participates with 5% in this joint venture.
Can you respect this Technical University?
Thessaloniki Technical University has no mineral engineering department.
They know nothing about mines. They're useless.
We are not going to get any water from...
The water we return from our drilling...
according to the environmental studies...
is returned as it was delivered by nature.
How will you return the water?
It goes to its place. It goes back to the aquifers.
Either to the rivers or to the aquifers.
However, two dams will be built at the streams that now supply water to the area.
They will be 140 meters high and 98% of the processed minerals...
will be stored there as toxic waste.
The whole extraction expects to have 2 grams of gold and copper per ton.
The company claims that all this toxic waste will be covered with earth...
and trees will be planted on it.
The dam specifications are scary if you get to see them.
They are built in an earthquake-friendly area.
When they will be abandoned in 50, 60, 70 or 100 years...
there will be none to maintain them.
These things get older...
and they may cause a disaster...
because the waste will be still there.
In 2010, after a strong rainstorm...
This is not the only recorded damage from the extractions at Stratoniki and Olympiada.
These extractions began in the 1930s and intensified after 1996.
Kyriakos Panagiotopoulos Edaphology Professor, Thessaloniki
In 2010 the local veterinary authorities forbade two cattlemen...
to get their cattle out...
or sell any products of them...
because there was too much lead in their milk.
They say "Why are you protesting while there's so much unemployment?"
"500 people will find a job there."
Sure, but what if these 500 working people cause unemployment of 100,000 people?
We have to consider this case.
Water can't be bought with all the gold of the world
Maria Kadoglou, Mineral Works Observatory
There is a ban based on a 1980 Stratoni port regulation...
which says that because of the beach pollution...
fishing is not allowed until you reach one km into the sea all along the beach.
Swimming, collecting oysters etc. is also forbidden.
The Blue Flag is an international symbol of quality...
a European symbol of quality of swimming water...
and it is awarded every year by the Ministry of Environment.
A Blue Flag has been awarded to the Stratoni beach for 3 years now.
Even though 250 hectares of ground is needed for the extraction in Skouries...
the government has given to the company...
the mining rights to 31,700 hectares.
The company is currently drilling there without any license...
to detect new deposits.
This is where Neochori is situated.
We have been getting water from St. Athanassios spring for 30 years.
Apostolos Santavas Neochori resident
In mid August, the water started smelling badly...
and people from the village were concerned.
On August 30, Mayor Pachtas announced...
that there's arsenic in the water.
He didn't publish the analysis though.
There are 50 drillings.
There are 50 drillings in a 200 meter radius.
But what is arsenic?
It is the most clear, defined with both experiments and epidemiological studies...
substance that causes cancer.
Alexis Benos, Medical School Professor, Thessaloniki
They are asking us if we have data.
We do, and unfortunately it means disease and death.
Some workers of Hellas Gold were telling me...
"I'm there every day and I'm totally healthy".
"Don't tell me it's harmful. I go there, I breath, I drink water..."
"and I'm totally healthy".
They're not thinking of the time dimension.
You won't die in two minutes time.
It's after 5, 10 or 15 years that you'll get cancer out if it.
And it is going to be late then.
The Neochori case led us to inspect past water analyses.
In villages like Olympiada and Stratoni for many years water contains arsenic...
near or over the allowed limit of 10 micrograms per liter.
In Halkidiki, for example. The aquifer is one-piece.
Thanasis Panteloglou, Chemical engineer-Biotechnologist
They say there's 30 micrograms of arsenic, for example.
The limit is 10 micrograms.
So, what do you do?
On the one hand, they thin it down...
and Mayor Pachtas says I'm giving you the poison little by little.
You won't die now, you'll die of chronic intoxication.
So the water is clean, there's 9 micrograms, because we thin it down.
This is not allowed, thinning down is adulteration.
You have a clean product, you mix it with the foul one.
This is thinning down, but it's adulteration too.
In the analyses, we also found a crime against local populations:
In Stagira, in 2011, the water springs contained arsenic...
3 to 5 times over the limit...
much more than what caused the recent water ban at Neochori.
The Aristotelis municipality continued offering contaminated water...
without warning about the dangers on locals' health.
Even more, in the latest analysis for Stagira...
there's no measurement for the springs that had highest arsenic count in 2011.
Meanwhile, all these water resources...
are controlled by KEPAMACH.
This is the water control body.
Hellas Gold has a 5% participation to this body.
So you can understand how northeast Halkidiki will end up.
An area with open pits and giant dams filled with waste.
This procedure will quickly end up to the desertation of the area.
Desertation will drive to social desertation.
What will people do? They will be forced to migrate.
Those poor black guys who come here from Africa...
have abandoned areas that were deserted with this kind of procedure.
They never got rich, although there was much gold and many diamonds.
They come here to sell CDs...
and become victims of racism and neo-Nazi gangs.
Just 45 km away from Athens, there is Asopos.
It is a small, torrentous river running from Thiva to Oropos.
The Asopos adventure begins with a decree from the dictatorship era.
In 1969 Asopos river is characterized as an industrial waste receiver.
Giannis Ikonomides, Priest, Inofyta
Athens' industry gradually moved to our area.
Businessmen bought any land plot they wanted without planning...
and they were building their industries.
For decades, industries have functioned and still do without any control...
and they throw their waste to the river without any treatment.
As if this wasn't enough...
those that are not near the river drill illegally in their courtyards...
and pump their waste directly to the aquifer.
I started working on this case in 2000.
My son was one year old...
and I heard chemist Thanasis Panteloglou say...
"In your area you kill your babies".
He told me then that the detergent formulas he used at his work for years...
wouldn't work as expected in our area.
He tried to find out what caused the problem, and it was the water.
The water we were drinking was unsuitable to make detergents and soaps.
There was lead, cadmium, nickel.
Thanasis Panteloglou, Chemical engineer-Biotechnologist
But the most dangerous is hexavalent chromium, which has an evil attribute.
When it enters the body through water, food or air...
it can get in your cells.
If the cell is contaminated by hexavalent chromium...
the natural cell repair mechanism finds its place taken.
The cell remains unrepaired, with metals in its DNA.
We asked the health authorities.
We realized that there was no archive.
We only had the cemetery register of my parish, St. Spyridon in Inofyta.
The cemetery register showed us that cancer as a death cause...
has risen from 6% in 1988 to 36% in 2004.
It gets down to the third generation.
When we talk about transmuted cells and abnormities...
caused by heavy metals and hexavalent chromium especially...
we mean there's impact on us, on our children, our grandchildren...
and now we work on the impacts on our grand grandchildren, the fourth generation.
It will be going on.
Heavy metals are not destroyed.
Heavy metals are passed down.
There's impact on the brain and the reproduction system.
You may not face an abnormity when the child's born.
You may find out 12 years later...
when a young girl won't get normal period.
Or a woman in reproductive age that has vesicular ovarian follicle...
and cannot have babies.
So we had grandmothers that gave birth to 10-12 children...
while working in the fields...
mothers who had 3-4 children and 10 abortions...
and now their daughters need IVF.
Asopos contamination is not a local problem...
because it reaches the whole country through local products...
from cosmetics to soft drinks and agricultural products.
We went to all Athens' super markets and bought potatoes, carrots and onions...
that said they came from that area.
Giannis Zabetakis, Food Chemistry Professor, Athens
We analyzed and compared them with potatoes, carrots and onions...
from Cyprus or Italy and we found out that the area products...
contain heavy metals, chromium and nickel.
The difference is up to 100%.
Zabetakis' research caused a number of reactions...
among them an extrajudicial letter.
The farmers wanted to know if our results are real etc.
Our constant attempts to meet a representative of the farmers failed.
If I was a farmer I would look for whoever harms my products.
Who pollutes the water and the land?
My land has been contaminated with heavy metals by some businessmen...
not by Zabetakis' research for Athens University.
I don't want to harm the area.
I have a consumer health perspective.
I don't want my child to eat potatoes with nickel in them.
This case is out of control...
and we're looking for scapegoats instead of doing what we have to do.
We should be united, scientists, the state-
Well, forget the state, we have the troika now.
Farmers, scientists and harmed citizens, like cancer patients in the area...
should unite and sue the polluters.
Since the contaminated aquifer is one-piece from Avlida to Oropos...
EYDAP (Athens' water company) came in to tone down the problem.
There has been an intervention...
and clean water is now distributed in Inofyta and Thiva...
after all these troubles, that lasted until 2010-2011.
But water has not been replaced in all villages of the area.
It hasn't been replaced in Avlida or Oropos.
A large part of this area still drinks contaminated water.
EYDAP is a publicly traded company, right?
They have appropriated water from all around.
They have a right to have extra water reserves...
for Athens' water supply.
They have two reserves.
One of them is lake Iliki, where they get a lot of water...
400,000 cubic meters per year.
And they also have water from northeast Parnitha mountain.
This is rich, clean water.
It is public property given to them to use it as they want.
And they sell it.
I don't get it.
If Oropos municipality has no clean water...
why should they get it to sell it to the industries?
If it was given to food or medicine industry, I wouldn't object.
Do you know they give it to metal industries?
They use it once in the factory and then it's toxic waste.
Where is it thrown away? Right to the aquifer.
We should remind that EYDAP, Athens Water Supply and Sewerage Company...
has already been assigned to the state Asset Development Fund (HRADF)...
in order to be sold.
Its extension to Viotia and Inofyta industries...
promises more profits for the potential buyer.
The "Kallikratis" Act added 60,000 citizens to the city of Volos...
or 41 villages of the area.
The municipal water and sewage company (DEYAMV) took over water command...
and installed chlorinators in Pelion villages...
causing the rage of locals.
The water of Pelion is top quality.
It's been known for years that it's one of the best of the world.
Vagelis Galanopoulos, Pelion-Volos Citizens for Water
It's not just quality water. Its natural attributes are perfect.
So there are some questions regarding DEYAMV's policy.
Their first action outraged people in the villages of Pelion...
because it was the preventive chlorination of water.
They abolish the right to the water people have been drinking for centuries...
without ever turning to the health services for some problem.
If the villagers accept without any proofs...
that their water is dirty because DEYAMV says so...
that it is degraded and dangerous...
then they will turn to bottled water...
they will abandon the springs and lose their interest on them.
Then the springs will be easy prey for any investor.
Why do you use chlorination?
It is required by the law. We are obliged to follow order.
Leonidas Mavrogiannis, DEYAMV Vice-President
The law says that tap water should have no germs at all.
Is chlorination or fumigation required by the law?
Fumigation. But laws in Greece say that this is the fumigation process.
The law does not require chlorination...
but the proper maintenance and fumigation of the pipes.
However, there are more requirements according to the law.
We would say that in the existing law there are two health regulations.
There's a 1957 law that excepts communities with under 3,000 inhabitants...
from the chlorination process, which is reasonable.
Then there's paragraph 2 of article 4 of the current law...
which is adapted to European law where it's stated clearly...
that the process used...
to fumigate water or protect fresh water...
should not degrade natural attributes of the water.
Our water is perfect, they say it's quite like Evian's water.
They can't chlorinate it and degrade the quality of our tap water.
This is prohibited by the law.
Alexis Benos, Medical School Professor, Thessaloniki
Chlorination is a typical example...
for the idea that we should put our test to the test.
Overchlorination has an impact on stomach...
and is related to increased stomach cancer rates.
Chlorine causes vulnerabilities to the stomach and the enteron.
Evina Paparizou, Biologist-Microbiologist
When chlorine meets organic matters that exist in the water...
like dead bacteria or other matters that happen to be in the network...
it forms new products like trihalomethanes or THM.
It can also form chloroform.
These new products cause carcinogenesis.
The can cause mutations and cancer.
In a village or a town, if there's a suspicion...
that the network has a problem...
they could overchlorinate while cleaning up...
but they should tell people.
"Don't drink water today, let chlorinated water flow to clean up germs".
The other day clean water should flow and not be drank.
I mean there's a procedure, it will only last a few hours.
At 8 o' clock you'll be able to drink water normally.
So you can use chlorine to clean up the pipes...
and then serve water without chlorine.
Volos citizens have to buy bottled water.
The cost is estimated to 30 million euros per year.
Unfortunately, people buy bottled water because of the chlorine leftovers...
in city networks.
There are some varieties of bottled water.
One of them is called table water.
This water may be coming from anywhere, rivers, lakes, bores.
According to the law they could also be fumigated.
That is, they can also be chlorinated.
It's a network problem. But we don't know about networks yet.
We have to replace them.
To replace the network in a village like Agios Vlassis...
we need many thousands of euros, which the company doesn't have right now.
They could get money from the EU, or wherever they could...
to gradually replace the old asbestos cement pipes...
which are full of holes and save water that way.
Instead, they build a new pipe to get water from the mountain.
37% of the network is made of asbestos cement pipes.
More or less. It could be less by now.
Isn't it a problem for water quality?
Not for water quality. The quality doesn't change.
If we get to find financing, we will replace them gradually.
Asbestos cement pipes have been banned because they are considered dangerous.
They have asbestos which is thought to cause cancer.
Sarantis Dimitriadis, Geology Professor, Thessaloniki
The municipality should grab the first opportunity...
to replace these pipes.
Almost all water supply networks in Greece use asbestos cement pipes...
from Thessaloniki to Crete.
While high quality fresh Pelion water is being chlorinated...
and mixed with low quality water from various drillings...
in a flimsy asbestos cement water pipe network...
DEYAMV also takes over irrigation, although there's no appropriate know-how.
Last year, the turncock came and told us...
not to water the trees, just the vegetables.
Olga Fragoudaki, Portaria resident
This was the first time we realized that there's a problem.
Until then we had no problems, nobody told us what to water.
This is what happened last year.
This year DEYAMV makes a record of all cultivated land.
Who's the owner, how large it is, if you have trees or vegetables.
In 2015 they expect EU funding to have the water flow...
in closed pipes instead of open streams.
Things are getting harder, trees will die.
Water won't flow in the open stream, which allowed various plants to grow...
into all that beauty.
Second part MANIPULATIONS AND REACTIONS
Just like chlorination, the irrigation issue hurt a lot...
because people self-control irrigation for centuries.
Their reaction when they heard that DEYAMV took over irrigation...
was very intense.
There were assemblies and resolutions and a lot of refusals.
Actually a large part of farmers refused to fill in the form DEYAMV gave them...
to register their irrigated land.
All these pieces of DEYAMV's policy build up a larger picture...
which is clear for us: We 're heading to privatization.
Unfortunately the people you've talked to are looking only at the one side.
They have a prejudice against DEYAMV.
I believe they have a possessive perception of water.
Leonidas Mavrogiannis, DEYAMV Vice-President
They say "You won't get our water".
It's not their water, though.
The law around the world and in Greece too...
does not allow property of water.
What does it mean to say...
I was born near a spring so the water is mine?
And no one can pay to get it?
We were the first municipal water company to join the European campaign...
and we publicized the European declaration against water privatization.
We can't solve all problems at once.
We are trying, starting from water sources.
We've already bought some land with springs in order to enclose it.
I have two coops, one for hens and one for chicks.
The chickens used to drink half a bucket of water everyday.
Since they used chlorine, the chickens only drink an inch of it!
Even chickens won't drink that water. This is a fact.
The first two times some small groups removed the chlorinator during the night.
The third time everyone was outraged and it happened at high noon.
This was really nice.
We felt-
We thought "Are we so powerful?".
We felt so happy that all this happened.
How did you react?
We sued them.
For sabotage and jeopardizing public health.
How will you act if the reactions continue?
We won't act, the courts will. What can we do?
Local communities considered chlorination as an offensive action...
which will never be accepted.
The mobilization of citizens in Volos and Pelion...
in such a premature stage of the privatization process...
comes as a surprise, but they seem to know why.
And the reason is called Lagonika.
POURI, EASTERN PELION Lagonika spring, 1989-1994
DEYAMV and the Municipality of Volos decided without asking the locals...
or the local authority or anyone at all.
Kostas Tsioumaris, Pouri resident
They decided to use this spring along with the company of Volos.
A constant battle began, through press and media arguing...
that people from Pouri don't want to give water for Volos' needs.
We didn't object the needs of people of Volos....
but we wanted to maintain our existence here.
You can't extend a city without thinking...
if the natural prerequisites exist.
Dinos Pigos, Volos resident
If you don't have water you can't extend a city.
If the population increases from 100 to 150 thousand people...
you have to go very far to transfer water.
Like Volos, that is climbing to Pelion.
They are in Pelion now.
They took over Kaliakouda spring, it wasn't enough.
They co-used Mana, it wasn't enough.
They took over Xirakia, it wasn't enough.
Lagonika wouldn't be enough too.
This way we'll dry up Pelion, it will not exist anymore.
And Pelion is the greatest value in this area.
If we lose Pelion, we're all lost.
In September 1993 the citizens suddenly saw the Police Special Forces...
to contain Lagonika in order to initiate the water transfer works.
The whole village was decided not to let them stay there.
Since then, no one has interfered with that spring.
We were a small group of people, a small village.
Since we all had the same opinion it was normal to resist...
using any legitimate or illegitimate means of struggle.
People need water in order to stay at the village, like everywhere.
That's what we thought and that's how we reacted.
We were aggressive to make them feel that we didn't intend to retreat.
Jailed over water dispute
Young arsonist from Pouri on trial
Kostas Polymerou on trial for attempted murder
Movements from all over Greece stood in solidarity...
with the young man from Pouri.
People from Aravissos went to Volos to act in solidarity.
They had already faced water appropriation and repression...
a few years ago.
The springs that give water to Thessaloniki are in Aravissos.
ARAVISSOS, 1989
In 1976 a contract was made...
between the municipality and the water company...
to expropriate water sources of Aravissos.
Giorgos Askitis, Aravissos Popular Committee Member
Police forces in Aravissos.
Demonstration in Giannitsa.
Outside the court.
They breached the contract, by drilling 18 times.
They backfilled the spring area...
where there was extra water...
other than surface water that was taken to Thessaloniki.
They tried to get even the last drop.
The result was that in 1989 the river ran dry.
This is a unique case, globally.
It was a barbarian assault.
They accused us that we don't want a million people to drink water.
We investigated into the case and we found out...
that water was being wasted to industries.
I don't remember who the minister was...
but he said it's a big political issue and he couldn't solve it.
So we returned to Aravissos and the citizens went in...
and deprived the 3 drillings that had destroyed the river...
from the right to exist.
It was an appropriation of the 3 drillings...
of which one was judged unlawful by the local court.
There was a police intervention.
There were 800 Special Police Forces men, all around the rural roads.
There made some terrorist actions in the village.
It was like it was under occupation.
After the events, the district attorney...
ordered home investigations for the committee members.
This happened in the morning...
and there was a guy with covered face...
who indicated which were the committee members houses.
Those that were sent to jail...
reacted with a hunger strike and 2 days of thirst strike.
The pressure was so big that they were released after a fortnight.
Then we went to 5 years of trials.
In the end the committee, all 18 members of it...
were found not guilty.
The events in Aravissos were very important...
because there couldn't be any political party interventions...
to this committee.
It was very important, along with solidarity by other movements.
People in Aravissos were influenced...
because they saw other people who were interested in our case.
Solidarity made them more sensitive in view of the problem.
Aravissos' water is under the control of EYATH.
Locals are ready to cooperate with city movements against privatization.
K136 took its name by this idea:
If every household in Thessaloniki that has a water meter...
contributes 136 euros, the citizens can buy EYATH cooperatively.
Kostas Nikolaou, Environmentalist, K136 Member
This is why it is called K136.
Zois Polizoidis, EYATH Workers Union Secretary
They managed to build 8 active cooperatives.
Their greatest success is that they were an official candidate...
in the competition.
We covered all standards the competition terms required.
They rejected us. They threw us out of the second phase.
We asked why. They never told us.
We asked for the session minutes...
who voted for or against K136 and why.
They never gave them to us...
so we went to court and there's an injunction in process.
The workers union took the initiative to create SAVE THE WATER platform...
against EYATH privatization.
Its main demand, a referendum.
This referendum initiative has not yet been implemented.
The truth is that while municipalities took the decision...
they never tried to carry it out.
Of course there's the obstacle that although it is allowed by the law...
some presidential decrees are missing, that should define...
how it should take place.
The other thing is that the central government does not want it to happen.
We are a new group that wants to fight for water.
We are called "Water Warriors".
We want to open up to the people and to get to the streets.
Giorgos Ioakimidis, Water Warriors Member
We think it is a matter of democracy.
If they cut your water supply if you can't pay for it...
it is fascism and we can't let fascism advance.
According to the press, the Council of State...
has judged that EYATH's privatization is unlawful.
The judgment has not been published, though...
and meanwhile the government is stepping up the privatization procedure.
They have no excuses.
The city movements resist...
the European Commission has objected to water sellout...
the Council of State has judged that it cannot be privatized.
They have no arguments to privatize water.
An international solidarity network has been built up around the EYATH case...
which includes citizens, unions and Europarliament members.
We will just mention a valuable experience from Bolivia.
The IMF went there in 1985 and initiated a huge privatization program.
Giorgos Archontopoulos, EYATH Workers Union President
People were collecting rain water from the tree leaves there...
and the company couldn't calculate how much it was...
so they imposed a monthly tax on rain water collection.
This was what made people start a revolution...
back in 2001 in Cochabamba.
People got killed there and in the capital city.
They made it, although the government called in the army.
This is why people got killed.
But they won.
The cultures secretary told us that they realized...
that if they can win the water war they can change the whole country.
For them, water was a matter of dignity.
Five years from then...
a native cocalero, Evo Morales, became the president of the country.
Northeast Halkidiki 1996 to today
State of siege
In Olympiada and Stratoniki, Canadian company TVX Gold has been extracting...
using cyanide since 1997.
The citizen reaction was faced with a dictatorship law...
prohibiting circulation and public assemblies...
citizen arrests and criminal suits.
When in 2003 the Council of State judged that cyanide use was illegal...
TVX Gold went bankrupt and was sold to Dimitris Koutras for 60,000 euro.
I had a conscience problem because the workers told me...
that there would be no Christmas for them.
They were 700 people who hadn't been paid for a year.
"What do you want?", I asked. "What can I do?".
If we had 2,000 euros each, we would sort things out, they said.
So I founded Hellas Gold with 1.5 million of my own money...
and I gave them the money.
We didn't buy the mines.
We got them for free.
We spent 11 million for the workers' compensations...
because we didn't want them to be unpaid.
We haven't extracted not even a gram of gold.
We've worked all those years in disadvantage.
We constantly raise capital. Aktor couldn't afford all that.
This is why we diminish our shares all the time.
After the mine was given away to Koutras, he sold his shares...
for more than 200 million dollars.
Hellas Gold has been acquitted by law for any responsibility...
for environmental damages if the causes are older...
or the contract is cancelled.
Today, the company has began works without licenses...
but the police keeps record of those that approach the mountain.
I just want to ask you, since you've entered private property...
You passed through the mine area.
We used the public forest road.
Yes. It is in the mines, all that area is private.
We used the forest road.
You can use the forest road, but you're filming the mines.
I'd like to ask you not to do that again.
OK, we won't.
Do you have orders to check who is visiting the mountain?
Everything, yes, anything.
On October 21, 2012...
Repeat order.
Alterthess.gr footage
A driver who had teargas thrown in his car is accused...
for attempted murder because he lost control...
just before the car fell into a ditch.
That day 18 people were arrested.
Before the arrest, a policeman crushed the leg...
of a 60 year old woman.
Kostas Efthimiou, Aristotelis City Council Member
The funny thing is that we were arrested and held overnight...
and then we were accused for insurgency based on a dictatorship law...
because they couldn't find anything to accuse us for.
All this never happened, according to the mass media until February 17, 2013.
Arson in Skouries mining site This investment offers jobs and tax money.
Nikos Dendias, Public Order Minister We have to ensure foreign investments.
Since then, propaganda, criminal suits and repression is increasing.
15 anti-terror squad jeeps and police buses.
They put people in the buses and they went to Ierissos.
It was an extraordinary image of an army invading a village.
Not in the houses!
National TV footage
There are children in that house!
They hit us from there.
This hill was full of Special Police Forces men.
They shot teargas in the primary school, in the coffee shops of the village.
Giannis Psiliagos, Ierissos High School Teacher
The police forces had just arrived and we heard bangs and then teargas came.
Many children had respirational problems.
They went to a neighbor, who lives just by my home...
at 3 am, they pulled down the door and they entered his home.
His children were sleeping and they took him from his bed.
How long did he stay in jail? 6 months?
No, it was 3 months.
They were held there and they were questioned...
in a basement, being beaten, etc.
The funny thing, if there's something funny about this case...
is that there are people who are accused for that day...
while they weren't here.
Some of them were in Thessaloniki, others in Mount Athos...
others in church because there was a ceremony that night.
Irini Markou, Ierissos resident
The police is not protecting us from the residents.
They protect us from Ierissos residents who are collaborating with a number of people.
I don't want to talk about it. I know.
When Keratea was over, it moved up there.
Resident reactions?
Wearing masks?
I was summoned because they say I prohibited traffic.
That's why the mountain was saved, because I stopped the vehicles...
and they didn't return to work, that's it.
Your son has also been summoned for other reasons, right?
Yes, he got many of them, he's luckier than me.
Anna Polyza Megali Panagia resident
When I got the brief I told the boy who brought it to me:
"Am I accused for all those things, son?"
It was inconceivable, even for a terrorist organization.
Inconceivable!
There have been interrogations of under-age persons without a lawyer...
like with everybody else...
but also without their parents.
Eleanna Ioannidou, Lawyer
It's the first time in Greece they collected DNA samples...
in such a wide way and totally irregularly.
Nationwide solidarity is also under attack.
Members of groups that organized events for information...
and financial support...
are now accused to be financing a terrorist organization.
Having talked with an anarchist makes you a terrorist.
We haven't seen such a beliefs trial for many years in this country.
This is a beliefs trial on a felony level.
The works that are going on now under the radar...
show us that there's an attempt to make the situation irreversible.
In such a case...
where what you're fighting for is already destroyed...
it is discouraging, in a way.
We have a hard time now, we've lost our smiles.
People are not like they used to be.
Ierissos was a happy town.
They're strong, of course.
They set the rules and they go after people.
But then what should we do?
Raise our hands and say "Come on, do whatever you like"?
I don't think it's right.
No way.
We've never thought of giving up.
We know this is a fair struggle.
Our conscience drives us to this struggle.
They're after youngsters mainly. They're afraid of them.
We haven't suddenly turned into an ecologists' society.
We are fighting for our basic needs.
Water is freedom.
Asopos river 2000 to today
There's intimidation too, you know what SLAPPs are.
They sue you just to get you into trouble with the judicial system.
For them it's nothing to send an extrajudicial letter...
or summon you.
They play games, they intimidate.
Thanasis Panteloglou, Chemical Engineer - Biotechnologist
Popular intimidation is a tool used in Greece today.
Layoffs, selective layoffs too.
Then there's those thugs with black clothes...
who came to replace other workers with a daily wage of 18 euro...
and they are silent.
In 2008-09, there was a quarrel in a public space.
TV crews were filming while some bullies...
of the ministry of health threatened us with guns.
This quarrel was caught on camera.
They were beating people on camera.
The priest ended up in the hospital with broken arms.
In many cases, our "enemies" decided to use violence.
Giannis Ikonomides, Priest, Inofyta
They used defamation or threats to end our fair struggle.
However, it's hard to stop a struggle related...
to the quality of water used to offer milk to your child.
Giannis Ikonomides archive footage
We set a principle from the beginning.
We would use all available institutions.
We weren't bullying or shouting.
We sent letters with specific requests, we were registering our appeals...
we always mentioned the law we expected to be applied.
Christos Panagopoulos, Oropos Federation President
The decision of Environment Committee of the European Union...
after a complaint by the Oropos' association federation...
and the ITAP of Inofyta...
in the Committee of Human Rights and Human Health...
has condemned the government for not proceeding with depollution.
So we don't have to prove to a Greek court that this area is polluted...
or that our health is damaged.
This is taken for granted.
The Greek court has to decide the amount of compensation.
The defendants' attorneys asked us where we get the money.
They had 15 lawyers and we only had one.
We're paying them from our money, I told the lawyer.
We want to save our health.
Legal ways are problematic too.
Things go very slow.
The Asopos trial is being postponed for a long time now.
The case began in 2007 and now in late 2013...
we're still at the first trial.
This is an environmental demolition.
The citizens, the associations...
myself as the president of the federation...
will keep on fighting with harsher means.
We'll block the river.
We'll make extreme moves. We can't go on like that.
We have decided in assemblies to go block the river. It's over.
Is this what they want?
We're loyal citizens. Do they want us to go extreme?
It can't go on like that. I wish it could.
Cancer took over.
I lost my own child...
because of hexavalent chromium.
There's no family around here without a cancer patient.
This country has two products: There's sun and sea...
so there's agriculture and tourism.
If you take down these two things we'll have to immigrate.
So how shall we lead our lives?
Should we look for other places? Are there any available?
Pollution and unemployment.
I remember a sign at a factory that wrote...
"Unemployment is the worst pollution".
In our area we've lost our jobs and we've lost our health too.
People are not idiots.
When they toast they say "To your health".
They don't say "To your daily wage".
My idea is a wage and health.
Apopigadi 2001 to today
In Apopigadi in 2001 the company, the forest authorities...
and the municipalities took locals' private property.
The forest authority claimed that the locals' properties were a forest.
The obligatory public announcement was held under other names...
in other municipalities so the owners would never find out...
and raise objections. This is how their property became public.
Some relatives called us from Chania...
to tell us that Heraklion University would like to send some students here...
to install a wind meter and check the wind power available.
Antonis Michelakis, Prasse resident, Apopigadi
We were tricked and the wind meter was installed.
We didn't know what it was for.
The area was passed down to the state.
Then they went to the forest authorities who asked why they wanted that...
and they said they want to install wind turbines.
The rent for 100 years was 93,000 euros.
When the bulldozers came, the villages were in unrest.
Nobody asked us before getting on our properties to build roads...
and destroy the grassland.
The company told us they don't recognize us...
and that they had a contract with the state.
Where did the state find the property titles to sell?
We're counting on that to get them back.
We have contracts but they don't.
The state should tell us how they got them.
The trial will be held on February 27.
I believe we will win.
I can't think of another decision...
because our homes and all our property are on the same contracts.
Some poor people who can't make their living give in.
They offer them money.
This is very disturbing.
They sign the papers for 200-300 euros and this is considered a compensation.
This is not a rent. Those people think this is a rent for the land.
They let them keep their land until they won't be able to pursue their rights in the courts.
They've sued us 60 times...
because we prevented the bulldozers from getting through.
The company lawyers were coming with the police and the district attorney.
After the arrests...
after three years of mobilization, they managed to step in.
But they had to use constant police presence.
The policemen never left that area.
The police protected them, protected the interests of multinational companies.
Spyros Panagiotakis, University student, Palea Roumata resident
This is how they managed to stay there.
It's all about injustice. Injustice has no limits.
It's a very bad thing.
They made the laws their way.
As that wise old man said the laws are for rich people.
In the past, someone would kill his brother because communism...
would deprive people of their property.
Today capitalism, which is based on the idea of private property...
grabs the small land plots of village people...
who have their herds of goats...
and they bring the police to have you arrested.
They've managed to silence electronic media.
My complaint is that on the day of our trial...
six newscasts mentioned a case of a beaten dog.
Nobody said a word on us and the attempt to have us jailed.
I'm one of the defendants.
We were just protesting, but they called the police.
Fragios Panagiotakis, Farmer, Palea Roumata resident
The police treated us as criminals.
They had just one eye.
They wouldn't see the company's thugs who held batons.
They only saw us as criminals.
Thugs and criminals were lawful...
and we, the locals, were illegal for them.
They brought some thugs.
They hit old men in their own land.
They threw old men on the ground and they stepped on their necks.
They attacked me with intention to kill me.
Some other villagers saved me.
Forester Kostas Pentarakis was the only forest authority employee...
who had a negative opinion.
He had claimed that he'd never allow this project.
However, when he was found dead the case was closed quickly...
without being solved, while some people told around...
that he had psychological problems.
We're in trouble caused by evil punks.
We can't solve the problem peacefully.
A fire is needed.
When it will start burning we'll become a second Syria.
Poor people's children will get killed...
while rich people's children will be abroad.
-What is water? -What is water?
Water is the main reason we rose up.
Water is the first thing we get in contact with...
when we're in our mom's belly.
That's why we should resist.
We should realize that this land is sacred...
and we shouldn't pollute it because we won't be able to live here.
Halkidiki you're in a holy fight
Crete stands in solidarity with you
I'm from Sfakia.
There was a program for 100 wind turbines.
They won't make it. We'll use our weapons if needed.
There's no peaceful reaction for them.
They consider enemy all those who react.
The use the courts and any other means they have.
Water is life. It is life.
It is also the place used by people who prefer...
being cremated rather than be eaten by worms...
to have their ash dispensed.
Dear Sirs, Madams and children.
Tonight we'll watch the show "Karagiozis as a chloriator".
It has a little bit of chloride, lots of beating...
and much more laugh.
Without water there's no beer too.
So water is beer.
Water is love.
Water is life. Just like that.
Freedom to struggling people!
Ierissos, November 6, 2013
We were really happy because the other two boys were released.
We couldn't be happy with the first two releases...
because we knew there were two more boys in jail.
We will fight for as long as we can.
We are the first drops of the storm coming