Last year at this time, Kathimerini published a letter from the president of Thessaloniki’s Court of Appeals, Katerina Papavassiliou, in which she described the dismal state of utility infrastructure in the Kassandra peninsula, the most touristic part of Halkidiki, northern Greece. Focusing on the busy resort town of Hanioti, where she has a summer home, she pointed out the “third-world” state of the water supply and sewage networks, which “defames our region and our country, with irreversible consequences for tourism.” She said “the outdated sewage network is unable to support the needs of the area during the summer months,” while “the frequent, sometimes multiday, water supply disruptions in summer houses and settlements rules out any notion of decent living for visitors, who are forced to abandon expensive accommodation.”
The president of the Court of Appeals was not saying anything more than what everyone in Halkidiki also sees coming – namely the feared collapse of the existing system supporting the exponentially rising number of tourists during the summer months. The municipal authority reacted to the story with a letter from its head, in which it repeated the usual, in such reports, allegations of defamation, implying that everything was well, while threatening to sue.
