Greek wildlife groups warn against govt flood recovery plan

Athens: Four prominent Greek wildlife groups on Thursday warned that the government s recovery plans after last year s flood disaster in Thessaly risk...

Athens: Four prominent Greek wildlife groups on Thursday warned that the government's recovery plans after last year's flood disaster in Thessaly risked causing even greater damage to the environment.

Greenpeace, WWF, the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature and the Hellenic Ornithological Society said the strategy was mainly focused on "old-school" dam construction instead of eco-friendly river management favoured by the EU.

WWF head of policy Theodota Nantsou said there were "huge concerns" about several of the proposals made by HVA, a Dutch company advising the Greek government.

"Not only are they massively expensive... but they promise even greater destruction," she told a news conference.

In September, Storm Daniel, a Mediterranean cyclone of unprecedented intensity, unleashed months' worth of rain in just hours on Thessaly, Greece's most fertile plain.