NOTIO AIGAIO - Environment
An archipelago of many faces
A grey, arid landscape, usually plunging from a great height deep into the blue sea and flattening out only down in the bays with their sandy beaches. The grey monotony is broken by small olive groves, vineyards and gardens with fig trees. Dazzling white houses, a multitude of churches large and small, and windmills perched in even the most unlikely niches in the rocks. This, in a few words, is the picture of a typical Greek island.
A typical island in the Cyclades has its harbour and, on a hill some way inland, its ?chora? or main town, with its characteristic Aegean architecture and its ancient fortress.
The main centre of a typical Dodecanese island is the harbour, with its old captains' houses bearing witness to the prosperity of bygone ages.
Soil erosion, overgrazing, forest fires on the larger wooded islands (Rhodes and Karpathos), over fishing and uncoordinated development are the main environmental problems of the islands. The terraces with dry-stone walls built by the inhabitants all over the hillsides to obtain cultivable land have been abandoned, with the result that the walls collapse and the topsoil is washed away by the rain. In addition, the vegetation is being destroyed as a result of the large number of free-ranging sheep and goats and the abandonment of pastures.
If information is available, please add comments on the following subjects:
- Measures to protect environment
- Sewerage
- Drinking water
- Waste management
- Gas and electricity supply
- Telephone network
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