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The water problem in Argos began early. Immediately after WW2 the valley was intensely used for orange plantations, and a large number of water wells were drilled. Cultivated areas increased by 300-400%. Traditional forms of growing multiple produce were steadily replaced by single-produce farms. This type of farming requires larger amounts of water. By 1973 the wells were already over-used, and increasingly deeper drillings were necessary. The wet parts of the valley dried up. Surface water became insufficient to regulate temperature fluctuation. It is a catch-22 situation: oranges, typically the single-produce crop of choice, are extremely vulnerable to low temperatures. A snowstorm can literally destroy a harvest. Dire as this problem is, it seems that more recently it has been compounded by another infinitely more serious one.

Argos and the surrounding Argolida valley have been irrigated by water replete with cancer-producing nitrates due to the thoughtless use of nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides. Many residents still consume water in which the contaminant levels of nitrates are consistently near 172 mg/l, whereas safe standards are 20 mg/l(for children) and 50 mg/l for adults.

Early in 1999 the consumption of local water in the village of Elliniko was banned by the authorities. It is a matter of great concern that Elliniko ranks among the highest altitude municipalities in the region, which means that the problem has actually spread to lower areas, beyond the valley of Argolida. The situation could be described as “tragic” in Midea, where a mere three out of the total of eight residential areas are provided with good-quality drinking water. People from other areas either carry their water supplies from the three “clean” villages, or have installed taps in the pipelines leading there.

In 1999 the official laboratory results were shocking. Nitrates were 46 mg/l in Zoga; 78 mg/l in Kourtaki; 106 mg/l in Inachos. There is still one clean well, but it is impossible to know how long it will remain safe. Many residents do not trust drilled local water, and choose to drink bottled water instead.

This is also true of villages near the border of the Argos region, as well as of the larger towns of Argos and Nauplion. People there will use local water only for cooking, on the assumption that boiling makes water safe. In fact, experts argue, it only accelerates the turning of nitrates into nitrum.

Perhaps what has been happening in Argos is typical of all of Greece. With hardly any regulations in place, millions of tons of pesticides and fertilizers are dumped every year in the soil, air, and surface and underground aquifers. An estimated 20,000 well drillings have almost exhausted the water table where the sea has infiltrated. Many of those wells, in which nitrates might reach levels in the area of 250 mg/l, are used to irrigate orchards.

According to officials from a newly-established agency of the Ministry of Agriculture, no one really controls the amounts of water, fertilizers and pesticides used and subsequently discharged. The ground water has decreased and the toxicity of those materials has spiraled so much out of control that the ministry has not been collecting data there since 1992.

Six years after an EU (then EEC) directive aimed at reducing the amounts of nitrogen fertilizers used, six Greek ministries decided to take action, announcing, “Measures for, and Terms of, the Protection of Water from Nitric Pollution of Agricultural Origin”. Local authorities have met the plan with disbelief. “No measure has come to my knowledge. Of course, I may not be aware of what is going on”, says the controller of waters for the Argos municipality. There are many people who call this “criminal negligence” on the part of the government. Nobody knows precisely how much nitrogen finds its way into produce, because nobody checks.

The Ministry of Health has yet to conduct a survey of the repercussion of the heavy use of pesticides and fertilizers on the local population. The Nauplion branch of the General Surgeon’s Office is staffed by just one chemist. There is no microbiologist.

Despite the absence of surveys, empirical knowledge of local life sounds the alarm. Cancer is now a household word. In 1996 alone 213 cancer-related deaths were recorded in the area.

Water pollution is at its direst in Oinofyta and the nearby Asopos river. For decades a labyrinthine network of pipelines has been discharging chromium 6 and other highly toxic metals into a river which was so clean that people used to swim in.

The catastrophe started in 1969, when Asopos, from its spring to the Aghios Thomas area, was officially pronounced a dumping site for industrial discharges. Local residents started protesting as early as 1974. In 1979 the entire river was pronounced a dumping site by a common decision of four neighbouring prefectures. That decision ignored an EU (then EEC) directive according to which Asopos was a protected wetland.

The first scientific survey of the quality of the local water was begun in 1994 by researchers at the University of Athens. Two years later they concluded that industrial discharge in the basin of Asopos might reach 13,800 sq.m. on a single busy day. There was no way to estimate the amount of discharge indirectly dumped. It took the Ministry of Health another two years to set up a committee for the protection of the Asopos. The project seems to have floundered.

In 1997 the Ministry commissioned the Athens Polytechnic to conduct research to define the technical means of halting the industrial pollution in the area, as well as rural discharges from the nearby city of Avlona. The researchers involved in this study discovered that pollution had risen beyond acceptable contaminant levels along the river, and suggested some solutions. Twelve years later, the project remains on paper. Residents sued thirteen industries for pollution. The highest fines resulting from the litigation were only 5,000 Euros.

2003 saw another lost opportunity. Asopos could have joined the “National Program for the Reduction of Pollution of Surface Water”. It never did. Instead, the government decreed in 2006 that the local industrial zone could facilitate up to 300 factories, which could use Asopos as a dumping site. (The decree has been subpoenaed, and a court decision is currently pending). The irony is striking: the same ministry which announced the new extended industrial zone, proclaimed measures for the protection of the ecosystem of the river.

The Asopos waters started turning periodically purple and black ten years ago. A “putrid stench rises from the river which ripples with bubbling sludge”, reports a journalist.

Today, toxicity runs rampant. Findings corroborated by the Association of Greek Chemists show that chromium 6, lead and nitrates, among other pollutants, have been detected in quantities which exceed by 1,000 the USA safety levels (the EU does not accept any detectable amount in drinking water). According to recent tests, in Chrysopigi, chromium 6 reached 69 mg/lit; in Thebes 1214 mg/lit; in Faros 136 mg/lit; in Tanagra 14-48 mg/lit. Nitrates were 69 mg/lit, when safety levels are 50 mg/lit. Higher than normal amounts of lead were detected in drilled wells. In effect, locals have no choice but to drink bottled water.

The carcinogenic effects of chromium 6 when inhaled have been verified beyond any doubt. It is highly toxic, corrosive, and contact with lungs, intestines and kidneys results in mutations. Skin exposure causes allergic reactions. So far there has been no conclusive research that ties cancer to the substance drunk in water, but an increasing body of evidence points towards that conclusion.

The Ministry of Agriculture has repeatedly assured the Press that they have no evidence proving that people’s safety is at risk. However, it has been reported, and never denied, that the Ministry has abandoned collecting data from Asopos.

Sources of chromium 6 are by definition steel, plastic, ink and industrial dyes. It is easy to point the finger at the culprits. After the detection of chromium 6, government inspectors have discovered at least twenty illegal pipelines discharging untreated waste. Local environmentalists have vehemently protested that inspection is minimal. Twenty companies have so far been fined a total of 1.5m Euros, which has caused consternation among residents as being too lenient. Some companies have pledged to fight the fines in the courts.

Statistics have shown that only 25% of the local industries comply with the laws which demand they treat their waste. With fines never exceeding 2% of their annual profits, it is cheaper for the companies to pay them than mend their ways.

These companies include the national aviation industry, EAB which recently signed a contract with the American Air Force to repair 95 F-16 jet fighters stationed around Europe. It has been argued that the repairs will release 1,750,000,000 mg of highly toxic materials, which will inevitably end up in the Asopos.

Oinofyta is literally a toxic time-bomb: Asopos is still used to irrigate the surrounding farms. The government has responded to local residents’ complaints by announcing a 2m Euros project to supply the 40,000 Oinofyta residents with water from the Athens network. Researchers have criticized this project as ineffective. Even if residents get fresh and clean water, should industries keep getting away with polluting, metals will find their way into produce used by the whole nation through the common water table. Asopos empties into the southern bay of Euboea, between the villages of Chalkoutsi, Skala and Nea Palatia. Oenofyta and Tanagra are situated near its delta.

The case has attracted international attention. Erin Brockovich, the legal clerk who became famous for taking on the Pacific Gas company for contaminating water with hexavalent chromium in California (the story was featured in an Hollywood film), is reported as saying that the amounts of chromium in the Hinkley river were much lower than in Asopos.

Central to environmental problems in Crete is the administration of water. In addition to international research that indicates that 1 in 3 people will suffer from lack of water by 2025, several recent papers have argued that Crete will be nearly dry by 2010.

Without exception, all actions taken regarding water on the island have resulted in lowering its quality and its quantity. Salinization of the water table has reached a great depth along the coast. Researchers from the University of Crete, echoed by their colleagues at Athens Polytechnic, have recently raised the alarm concerning the increasing levels of salt in drinking water. Deterioration at today’s pace will result in water of such low quality that it will be inappropriate for irrigation, let alone human consumption.

A frequently-proposed measure, which many companies advocate and many people find attractive, is desalinization. It has been argued that this, too, may entail large-scale coastal pollution and expense.

To make things worse, private drilling for water is a common practice. Today the number of wells drilled is in the thousands. Further, huge dams in valleys (such as Aposelemi, Amari, Faneromeni and Bramiano) either already deprive, or are about to deprive, the nearby catchment areas of water by diverting the flow from local gorges. The benefits from such a colossal operation are questionable. What is not in question is the colossal environmental and monetary cost of these enormous dams.

Academic researchers and environmentalists have advocated solutions of a different character altogether. They insist on enriching the water table by means of small and mild restraining dams. They have also advocated modern irrigation techniques, improvement for the ageing pipe network, clear-cut policies regarding the conservation of water. Local environmentalists have thought along the lines of defining the local hydro-geological basins, advocating urban planning, and pressing the government to fund the local authorities.

Environmental problems in Crete are not exclusively to do with water. They are epitomized in the case of the Messaras Bay. There what should have been a cultural center of archaeological sites and local scenic beauty, as well as an area with tremendous agricultural potential, has been abandoned. Instead, what is promoted is a massive transportation centre which will inevitably turn the valley and bay of Messaras into an industrialized zone.

Strange choices are also evident in energy policy. The executive officers of ΔΕΗ (the state-run energy provider), the state Energy Committee, and oil companies keep launching intensely-polluting oil refineries (in Linoperamata, Xirokamara and Atherinolakos). In contrast to this proliferation of pollution, every single proposal for the funding of solar cells or wind energy units has been rejected.

A further problem has to do with soil. For decades the Cretan mountains have been destroyed by the over-grazing of flocks of sheep and goats. Local shepherds have been allowed to roam at will. Equally uninformed local authorities have been bulldozing thousands of tracks through the mountains, which become virtual mud rivers with each hard rain. UNESCO and dozens of others institutions have warned Greek authorities about the situation. It cannot be claimed that the last Greek governments did more than the absolute minimum. A national committee was indeed set up, but left without funds and responsibilities. Critics suggest that if the committee had any real power, it would have protected natural sites which are otherwise likely to be sold as golf courses, resort houses, even mines.

Perhaps the gravest problem is waste management. There is a very strong legal framework, both national and EE on this issue. Nonetheless, educational campaigns for recycling are not conducted on a continuous basis. Industries are not forced to recycle their packaging. Eco-friendly packages are not promoted, nor are composting programs. The worst is yet to come.