It needed a powerful rainfall and the makeshift road locals built on their own initiative disappeared in time much shorter than the illegal constructors needed to build it. Residents of Alikianos constructed the illegal road over night, fed up with the bureaucratic delays.
The heavy rainfall that started on Thursday night brought the Keritis river to swell and the rushing waters quickly swept away the provisional road together with every embankment and very polder and whatever else the locals had thought of in order to make the road stable for vehicles.
With heavy machinery, the illegal road constructors rushed on Friday to the area and removed the metal pipes they had added to make the road stable before the waters swept them away.
The pipes they had placed at their own cost are expensive, they said.
Before
After
Beginning of the week, the residents of Alikianos decided to take the situation in their own hands and constructed their own makeshift road, a month after the historical Keritis bridge collapsed due to the severe rainfalls in February.
Before
After
The residents accused the local authorities of inexcusable delays in restoration of the damages infrastructure that isolate them from the rest of Crete and force them to drive 8 km longer in order to reach Chania.
Authorities demanded the prosecutor’s intervention because the makeshift road was not only illegal but also very dangerous.
On their part, Alikianos residents demanded also the intervention of Justice even if for different reasons. The prosecutor should investigate why the 111-year-old Keritis Bridge had collapsed.
While prosecutors are supposed to investigate, the Keritis River decided in favor of the locals and took away the sole evidence against them: the makeshift road.
