May 7, 2007 Arsenic in Cambodian Drinking Water
Posted on separationsNOW.com
Arsenic and manganese contamination of the drinking water in Cambodia may be explained by the low-relief topography - flat areas with gradual slopes that are confined by two rivers - of some areas of the country, say new research by Swiss and Cambodian scientists.
Arsenic turns up as a contaminant of drinking water in countries such as the United States, Argentina, Bangladesh and Vietnam. Concern about arsenic comes from the fact that it can lead to health problems after chronic exposure over a period of 10 to 15 years. The World Health Organization (WHO) therefore recommends a drinking water limit of 10 µg/L of arsenic.
In 2000, hand-pumped tube-wells in Cambodia were found to contain arsenic above 100 µg/L. Tube-wells are popular in Cambodia where 100,000 family-based wells supply drinking water, leading to concerns about arsenic contamination in the area. Similarly, studies in the Mekong Delta, which is located in Southern Vietnam and neighboring Cambodia, also turned up arsenic in the drinking water. However, studies to date have only given a rough picture of the location and levels of contamination in areas that might be at risk.
Now, Johanna Bachmann, Michael Berg and Caroline Stengel, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, along with Mickey Sampson, from Resource Development International-Cambodia, have produced a comprehensive database of temporal ground-water composition in the Cambodian Mekong river floodplain. Their results reveal the coincidence of high arsenic levels with low-relief topography in the area. The results are published in Environmental Science and Technology.
The Cambodian Mekong river floodplain transverses the Kandal, Takeo and Prey Veng Provinces of Cambodia and at parts have both the Mekong and Bassac rivers running through it. Bachmann and colleagues traveled to the Mekong river floodplain in November of 2004 and March of 2006 to collect samples from private family-based tube-wells over an area of 3700 km2. In total, they collected 131 groundwater samples for a density of about 1 sample per 30 km2.
Bachmann and colleagues set about analyzing their samples for arsenic by inductively-coupled-plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and atomic fluorescence spectroscopy (AFS), for Fe, Mn, Na, K, Ca, Mg and Ba concentrations by inductively-coupled-plasma optical emission spectroscopy, for Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb, Cr, Cd and Ba by ICP-MS, and for nitrate, sulfate and chloride by ion chromatography.
The authors found that arsenic concentrations where very high - averaging 233 µg/L - along the Mekong and Bassac rivers and in the floodplain the runs between these two rivers. In fact, 48% of the wells had arsenic concentrations above what the WHO recommends and 36% had levels over 50 ìg/L. Bachmann and colleagues also found that some wells had higher than average levels of magnesium, which can be harmful to humans and limit plant growth.
"The high arsenic concentrations in the Kandal Province are posing an alarming health threat to the people who consume this water daily. In addition, the elevated Mn levels found in Prey Veng Province must be considered harmful for infant children," write the authors.
Bachmann and colleagues went on look at the topography of the areas they tested with contour model derived from the USGS digital elevation model GTOPO30. They found that areas with high arsenic levels coincided with a flat topography that contains gradual slopes (low-relief topography), which is found between the Mekong and Bassac rivers in Cambodia.
"We believe such topography is a worthy indicator to be considered in [arsenic] groundwater studies," conclude the authors.
Arsenic turns up as a contaminant of drinking water in countries such as the United States, Argentina, Bangladesh and Vietnam. Concern about arsenic comes from the fact that it can lead to health problems after chronic exposure over a period of 10 to 15 years. The World Health Organization (WHO) therefore recommends a drinking water limit of 10 µg/L of arsenic.
In 2000, hand-pumped tube-wells in Cambodia were found to contain arsenic above 100 µg/L. Tube-wells are popular in Cambodia where 100,000 family-based wells supply drinking water, leading to concerns about arsenic contamination in the area. Similarly, studies in the Mekong Delta, which is located in Southern Vietnam and neighboring Cambodia, also turned up arsenic in the drinking water. However, studies to date have only given a rough picture of the location and levels of contamination in areas that might be at risk.
Now, Johanna Bachmann, Michael Berg and Caroline Stengel, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, along with Mickey Sampson, from Resource Development International-Cambodia, have produced a comprehensive database of temporal ground-water composition in the Cambodian Mekong river floodplain. Their results reveal the coincidence of high arsenic levels with low-relief topography in the area. The results are published in Environmental Science and Technology.
The Cambodian Mekong river floodplain transverses the Kandal, Takeo and Prey Veng Provinces of Cambodia and at parts have both the Mekong and Bassac rivers running through it. Bachmann and colleagues traveled to the Mekong river floodplain in November of 2004 and March of 2006 to collect samples from private family-based tube-wells over an area of 3700 km2. In total, they collected 131 groundwater samples for a density of about 1 sample per 30 km2.
Bachmann and colleagues set about analyzing their samples for arsenic by inductively-coupled-plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and atomic fluorescence spectroscopy (AFS), for Fe, Mn, Na, K, Ca, Mg and Ba concentrations by inductively-coupled-plasma optical emission spectroscopy, for Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb, Cr, Cd and Ba by ICP-MS, and for nitrate, sulfate and chloride by ion chromatography.
The authors found that arsenic concentrations where very high - averaging 233 µg/L - along the Mekong and Bassac rivers and in the floodplain the runs between these two rivers. In fact, 48% of the wells had arsenic concentrations above what the WHO recommends and 36% had levels over 50 ìg/L. Bachmann and colleagues also found that some wells had higher than average levels of magnesium, which can be harmful to humans and limit plant growth.
"The high arsenic concentrations in the Kandal Province are posing an alarming health threat to the people who consume this water daily. In addition, the elevated Mn levels found in Prey Veng Province must be considered harmful for infant children," write the authors.
Bachmann and colleagues went on look at the topography of the areas they tested with contour model derived from the USGS digital elevation model GTOPO30. They found that areas with high arsenic levels coincided with a flat topography that contains gradual slopes (low-relief topography), which is found between the Mekong and Bassac rivers in Cambodia.
"We believe such topography is a worthy indicator to be considered in [arsenic] groundwater studies," conclude the authors.
5 comments:
And where the CPP (Cabodia Poison Pig) comming from. and how can we eliminate it or flust it throu the toilet.
The water from many of the water wells are unfitted for human consumption!
I am just amazed for all these fucken time that Cambodia still don't have a major water treatment facility that is affordable enough to filter out all these contamination before reaching Cambodian population!
We have major water treatment
facility, but not facilities, and
that aint free either. So shut the
fuck up, and send in the cashes.
To 7:00AM Vietcong bitch!!!
Do you want Cambodian people to drink arsenic motherfucker!!!ahahh
3 million Cambodian people had died under the Khmer Rogue and now more Cambodian will die under AH HUN SEN former Khmer Rogue Vietcong slave!!!
I told you AH HUN SEN former Khmer Rogue Vietcong slave will always choose death for Cambodian people and Cambodian people will never stop dying!!!
Well, if you guys don't send in
the cashes for the water treatment
facilities, que sera, sera. What
do you think we are, a cashes
manufacturer or something?
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