With their whitewashed villages, impressive hills and clear blue sea, the Cyclades are among the most famous symbols of Greece’s unspoilt beauty.

But that facade is beginning to crack. With peak tourist season underway and record numbers of visitors predicted, residents, campaigners and some local officials are warning that tourism is spiraling out of control.

They are fed up with luxury hotels and villas with private pools that drain the water supply, sewage that seeps into the groundwater, illegally built roads and traffic jams around ports and cities, garbage dumped on quiet beaches, rising prices and the passivity of Athens.

Like other islanders, Nicolas Stephanou, a 40-year-old resident of Paros, is fighting back. Last summer, he helped coordinate protests on beaches so full of sun loungers and umbrellas