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A Greek town finally gets proof that toxic waste from local factories has been polluting their water supply. MOREINFO: Residents have been campaigning for years to prove that Chromium 6, an anti-corrosive substance used in the production of some paints and dyes, has seeped into the town's river. SCRIPT: After years of campaigning, residents of a Greek town called Oinofyta have had their worst fears confirmed. Toxic waste in the form of chormium 6 -- an anti-corrosive one finds in paint -- has and is being dumped in their water supply. In part ONE of a report by Deborah Kyvrikosaios we hear from a resident and campaigner who has spent years trying to uncover the truth. (VO) It's hard to believe that once, children used to swim in this river. Nowadays the only thing people think about when they look at it, is cancer. That is because the Asopos river, 60 kilometres north of Athens, has contaminated the drinking water of this town, Oinofyta, with a carcinogen. For more than thirty years this region has evolved into a large industrial zone, factories propping up around the town, and dumping untreated waste into the river through illegal underground pipelines. The river has a rotten stench, its waters change colour, and bubbly sludge flows through it. But residents were always in the dark to any risk to the drinking water. Until two men joined forces to prove there was a problem. Biochemical engineer Thanasis Panteloglou and town priest Father Yannis set out on a crusade that would take years and a lot of denial by authorities to unmask the truth. SOUNDBITE: Thanasis Panteloglou, biochemical engineer and campaigner, saying (English): "In the beginning, 2000, 2002, no one was listening." Father Yannis went searching for official medical evidence of a link between the water and people's health. But there was none. What he found was that in the town's death register 198 people from this community of 3,000 had died of cancer in the last 18 years. He says his calculations show that since 1989, death rates due to cancer have risen from 6 percent to 32 percent. And in August, a test by the State Chemical Laboratory showed that hexavalent chromium, or chromium 6, a metal recognized by the World Health Organization as a carcinogen, was in the water supply. Chromium 6 is used as an anti-corrosive. In the production of stainless steel, paints and dyes. It poses health risks if inhaled, ingested or contacts skin. It's on the European Union's list of restricted substances. The residents were angry. SOUNDBITE: Thanasis Panteloglou, biochemical engineer and campaigner, saying (English): "Why they kill us? why? That is the question. Toxifying babies, pregnant women, milking women. Its a crime isn't it? With chromium 6, everyone knows chromium 6 consequences." (On Cam) We'll see just what those consequences are in part TWO of our special feature on toxic waste.