The dump drowns the antiquities in the trash.

The wonderful outdoor gallery of prehistoric Neolithic settlement of Strofilas in Andros became main theme again because of precipitation of the dump, which operated within the site.

The recent rains tonnes of rubbish, debris, appliances and soil washed away in the remote ravine and reached the Gulf ropes.

The heavy rains in early February swept much of the illegal dump, which stretches from the 70s to the plateau Strofilia. Indeed, a few days after precipitating the municipality ordered a reopening of the dump, but a decision of the Minister of the Interior finally ceased operation.

The area that has been declared an archaeological site in 1994 has recorded the bigest number of fires every year from the illegal dump.

Tons of trash, debris, appliances, all kinds of waste and tons of soil washed away in the rugged gorge and reached the Gulf ropes and the sea. There's water reservoirs were placed by the Port Authority, to prevent escape of waste water in the wider area and stopped the dumping of waste at the archaeological site and now the major searches to find a solution for the disposal of garbage.

The request to remove the dump from the archaeological site Stavropeda - Strofilas,  has been repeatedly by local authorities and residents.

In 2005 the archaeological site of great value and featured for the first time banned the use of the tip, but this does not materialize.

The Supream Court in relevant decision (293/2010 SC) for cessation of disposal at the archaeological site, among other things, says: "So far have not respected the conditions of protection set by the contested decree, especially in fire safety measures, study on the siting of waste deposition cell and the compression method selection and coverage.

Fires
These failures, which repeatedly had caused the fire continue to endanger the antiquities and necessary for their emergence site. The inability to find a place to deposit waste on the island does not justify the operation for 20 years to dump controversial archeological site.

Nevertheless, the Association of Municipalities men took leave extended operating the landfill until 2010, when the Council of State annulled the relevant Ministry decision to allow the extension.

The Minister of Culture sent two letters to the local athorities in April and July 2010, called for compliance with the Local Government Council of State and the decommissioning of illegal dump. The majors of andros were completely indifferent to the request of the Ministry of Culture. For its part, the Ministry of Interior refered (Ref 995/4-01-2011) to the responsibilities of local authorities and their inability to move the location of landfills, as required by the Regional Solid Waste Management Plan (RSWMP) of South Aegean.

Eventually it was decided to accommodate them from the tribe in garbage area of West Attica, at which waste from all over Greece, as the issue of management of all categories of waste nationwide.

Specifically : "This is due to be installed on Waste Transfer Station by the sea to begin until 30/06/2011, so in the meantime been settled the regulatory framework for shipping and must have completed the award of the services.

The ... crime

• Since 1983 he discovered a Neolithic settlement Strofilas today still dump. With a long delay was declared an archaeological site in 1994 (Gov. 434/V/9.6.1994), while 1997 was characterized as an archaeological site and the area of ​​Stavropeda - St. George Pantoukios.
   
• In the Stavropeda recorded more fires every year, because many times the dump 'fire' and handed over the rugged canyon in flames, to save storage space and other garbage.
   
• "The lucky thing is that the collapse of the landfill has not caused damage to antiquities, because they are at a higher altitude," said the archaeologist and head of excavations Dr. Christina Televantou.

THE REGION IS SERCHING FOR SOLUTION
Recycling Program

The municipality of Andros perform work now in order not to collapse and dump the rest, and as we said Deputy Mayor mr. Ballas Lefteris:

"The Laboratory of Engineering Geology - Hydrogeology of the School of Mining Engineering, University developed urgently to restore the site.

Based on this study perform work to stabilize the landfill, with the approval of the U. EPCA Cyclades to be dispersed collection of wastes and site restoration.

The dumping of rubbish at the archaeological site has stopped. The municipality's garbage is full, the garbage collection has stopped and now seek a temporary solution until a transfer station and transfer garbage in the race. Among residents of Andros, in this difficult time, we can throw minimal waste, what can not be otherwise disposed or recycled.

Even the solution of mobile waste processing unit examines the Municipality of Andros, which maintains that there is an objective difficulty in siting sanitary landfill on the island, with 40% of land is protected Natura areas, while the rest are archaeological sites and tourist areas.

Management
The district of South Aegean Ioannis Mahairidis spoke on "Sunday Nation" for the problem of waste management and explains: "In the islands of garbage production is small and I think the best method of management is on-site use 100% . You should be stacking stations - transfer, gathering recyclable materials and subsequently transported to recyclers.

The organic residue will become compost (fertilizer) and rejected the desertified slopes, where due to overgrazing, intensive cultivation and fires have stripped soils.

A region will go directly to achieving four months pilot recovery - recycling.

In other European countries, municipalities have revenue from the utilization of trash. In Greece, show the islands and the ancient culture, but culture is not only ancient, is the natural environment that our country continues to deteriorate. "

Extensive rock art
"Prehistoric Art Gallery" with unique finds

The Neolithic settlement on Andros Strofilas dating from 4500-3300 BC located on the west coast, near the Stavropeda.

The Strofilas is unique in scope, buildings and artifacts and the best preserved prehistoric settlement has been uncovered in the Aegean.

It is also one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the last quarter century.

Mainly because of the extensive rock art, which according to Ephorate Prehistoric & Classical Antiquities (EPCA), the department conducting the excavations (5135/16.7.2004) are "open prehistoric gallery, leading monument of world cultural heritage."

Poor funding
Excavations carried out with scant funding. Led by archaeologist Dr. Christina Televantou, while these findings are preserved in the Maintenance Section of the Archaeological Museum of Andros.

"The findings of the archaeological site overturn the current data," said Mrs Televantou. "With the excavation carried out shows that, from the fifth and fourth millennium BC stood in the geographical area that societies with a high cultural level, have strong backgrounds, but also a springboard for the creation of the Aegean civilizations of the early Bronze Age, as the Cycladic.

The plateau Strofilas in an area of ​​25-30 acres, stretching the ruins of a unique size and maintaining a fortified settlement, protected by a powerful firewall and is now documented as the oldest example of defensive architecture in the Aegean islands.

The building fabric is extremely dense and impressive buildings, arched and rectangular, for the large size of many areas and elaborate their strong walls.

Dionisia Lagiou
kallipateira@pegasus.gr

Photos: VANGELIS LOUKISAS