It took until this year for official tests to show drinking water was contaminated with high levels of the carcinogen chromium 6, catching the attention of US advocate Erin Brockovich and spreading shock and anger in the town.

Used as an anti-corrosive in the production of stainless steel, paint, ink, plastics and dyes, the metal is on the European Union's list of restricted substances and listed as a carcinogen by the World Health Organisation.

It poses health risks if inhaled or orally ingested, or comes into contact with skin.

Since 1989, the proportion of deaths in the town caused by cancer has risen to 32 percent from 6 percent previously, according to Oinofyta's priest, Father Yannis.

"When I heard it was so dangerous that you're not even supposed to come into contact with it, I was terrified," said resident Dina Fouki, a 35-year-old mother of two. "I have lost loved ones and will lose more. Something must be done."

Fouki has lost her father and in-laws to cancer in the past five years and her friend has been diagnosed with the disease. Now she and her neighbours will not even brush their teeth with tap water.

A putrid stench rises from the river, whose waters run from red to black and ripple with bubbling sludge. Despite the obvious pollution, local people said officials never warned them of the risks in the 30 years since the factories set up in the area.

"When we lost our relatives we started getting suspicious," Fouki said. "But we didn't know. How could we?"

Brockovich, made famous by a Hollywood film about how the water supply of Hinkley in California had been contaminated with chromium 6 in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, has discussed the Asopos pollution on her Web site and plans to visit the area.

YEARS OF CAMPAIGNING

A biochemical engineer and the priest joined forces in a crusade to force authorities to take action. After years of campaigning, tests by the state lab showed the water supply, contaminated by the Asopos, had high levels of the chemical, also known as hexavalent chromium.

"In the beginning, 2000-2002, no one was listening," said biochemical engineer Thanasis Panteloglou. "Authorities were in denial."

His co-campaigner Father Yannis searched for medical proof that the water was having an effect on health, but could find none. What he did find was that in the past 18 years, 198 people in a town of 3,000 had died of cancer.

"We are enraged over being fooled for so many years. We fear our health is damaged. We are desperate and angry," he said.

It started in 1969, when factories were first allowed to dump waste unrestricted into the Asopos. Although authorities later put restrictions on what could be discharged, many factories built illegal underground pipelines straight into the water and continued to empty untreated waste.

"Many people knew that Asopos was polluted but they were not aware of the extent of this pollution," said Greenpeace Greece president Nikos Charalambidis. "Pollution was not the first priority at the time, industrialisation of the area was."
INDUSTRIES FINED

After chromium 6 was detected in August this year, government inspectors dug up 20 illegal pipelines dumping untreated waste in violation of regulations.

In November, the government imposed fines totalling 1.4 million euros (US$2 million) on 20 companies, saying they should be using waste treatment systems. It vowed to toughen anti-dumping laws and said it would not hesitate to shut down factories violating the rules.