A Greek professor has raised objections to the intervention plan for the famous “Navagio” (Shipwreck) beach on Zakynthos, which remains closed to the public again this year over landslide risk, in comments to the German newspaper Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung.
According to the paper, specialists from the National Technical University of Athens have developed a plan meant to slow the site’s deterioration. The beach would be widened by roughly 30 meters through the addition of 45,000 cubic meters of gravel and sand, aimed at blocking the winter storm waves that batter the wreck site directly and cause further damage.
The project’s budget comes to 3.9 million euros. Materials would be delivered to the cove by cargo ship and placed into the water using floating cranes. In a second phase, the Municipality of Zakynthos plans to rebuild the shipwreck itself for around 2.5 million euros and maintain it to prevent further deterioration.
The German outlet notes the project has stirred controversy. Manolis Vasilakis, a geology professor at the University of Athens, considers it a massive intervention in nature and questions whether it makes sense to spend several million euros transporting tens of thousands of tons of gravel that will very quickly be swept away by the sea.
The Navagio plan was first presented in January, when the Ministry of National Economy assigned the Municipality of Zakynthos the “Restoration of Zakynthos Shipwreck” project. The beach-widening and maintenance plans are based on NTUA studies.
In June, the government imposed a tourist access ban, via a Joint Ministerial Decision, covering both the “Prohibited Zone” and the “Controlled Access Zone” at Navagio beach. Access is only permitted from the existing observation platform.
