Arsenic exposure to drinking water in the Mekong Delta

Merola, R. Brittany; Hiền, Tô Thị; Quyen, Do Thi Thuy; Vengosh, Avner

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.12.091

Cited by 34 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…The growing regional and global concerns about these adverse impacts of large-scale dam construction and climate change have led to increasing interests in studying the WEF systems in the Mekong basin. Studies have modeled scenarios of future development to explore the likely hydrologic impacts of dam construction [2,4,8,25,46] and climate change [16,23,47,48], as well as the changes in downstream sediment delivery [40,41,43,49] and coastal groundwater [50,51]. While the consequences of some of the large dams have been thoroughly assessed [34], the cumulative and broader effects of all dams on the WEF systems across the basin, especially when combined with the effects of changing downstream hydrologic processes (e.g., flooding and recession, groundwater recharge from floodplains, coastal groundwater dynamics) remain largely unexamined [2,9].…”

Section: Dams In the Mekong And Their Hydro-agro-ecological Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Widespread aquifer storage depletion, water quality deterioration, and saltwater intrusion are already emerging in parts of the delta as a result of the compounded effects of the groundwater overexploitation and sea level rise due to climate change [20,50,51,91,95]. The Mekong Delta covers 50,000 km 2 of fertile alluvial plain extending from Kratie in central Cambodia to Vietnam's East Sea.…”

Section: Availability and Use Of Surface Water And Groundwater Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The groundwater levels are persistently declining in the Vietnamese portion of the Mekong Delta at a rate of~0.3 m/year based on data from nested monitoring wells, with an average land subsidence rate of~1.6 cm/year [50]. The occurrence of high salinity (salt water intrusion due to sea level rise and groundwater use) and Arsenic content in groundwater could limit agricultural production and pose serious human health risks in the future [51,[100][101][102]. A recent study confirms that excessive groundwater abstraction is the primary driver of land subsidence [95], which has increased dramatically over the past 25 years.…”

Section: Availability and Use Of Surface Water And Groundwater Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Review of the Integrated Effects of Changing Climate, Land Use, and Dams on Mekong River Hydrology

Pokhrel

Burbano

Roush

et al. 2018

Water

196

112

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Abstract:The ongoing and proposed construction of large-scale hydropower dams in the Mekong river basin is a subject of intense debate and growing international concern due to the unprecedented and potentially irreversible impacts these dams are likely to have on the hydrological, agricultural, and ecological systems across the basin. Studies have shown that some of the dams built in the tributaries and the main stem of the upper Mekong have already caused basin-wide impacts by altering the magnitude and seasonality of flows, blocking sediment transport, affecting fisheries and livelihoods of downstream inhabitants, and changing the flood pulse to the Tonle Sap Lake. There are hundreds of additional dams planned for the near future that would result in further changes, potentially causing permanent damage to the highly productive agricultural systems and fisheries, as well as the riverine and floodplain ecosystems. Several studies have examined the potential impacts of existing and planned dams but the integrated effects of the dams when combined with the adverse hydrologic consequences of climate change remain largely unknown. Here, we provide a detailed review of the existing literature on the changes in climate, land use, and dam construction and the resulting impacts on hydrological, agricultural, and ecological systems across the Mekong. The review provides a basis to better understand the effects of climate change and accelerating human water management activities on the coupled hydrological-agricultural-ecological systems, and identifies existing challenges to study the region's Water, Energy, and Food (WEF) nexus with emphasis on the influence of future dams and projected climate change. In the last section, we synthesize the results and highlight the urgent need to develop integrated models to holistically study the coupled natural-human systems across the basin that account for the impacts of climate change and water infrastructure development. This review provides a framework for future research in the Mekong, including studies that integrate hydrological, agricultural, and ecological modeling systems.

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Section: Dams In the Mekong And Their Hydro-agro-ecological Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Availability and Use Of Surface Water And Groundwater Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Availability and Use Of Surface Water And Groundwater Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A Review of the Integrated Effects of Changing Climate, Land Use, and Dams on Mekong River Hydrology

Pokhrel

Burbano

Roush

et al. 2018

Water

196

112

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…In general, most of the studies in Viet Nam so far just evaluated groundwater quality by using separated factors, not an integrated assessment model, and without quantitative analysis; for example, these authors just used TDS levels to make the assessments. However, there have been some studies about arsenic pollution in the Mekong Delta [10], and about harmful effects of arsen in drinking water in this area [9]. Our research team argues that these types of analysis and assessments still not clearly evaluate the quality of groundwater at present project sites that have been currently in service for the people there.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of groundwater quality of middle – Upper pleistocene aquifer in Ca Mau peninsula

et al. 2016

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Groundwater quality is a matter of concern in Ca Mau Peninsula. There have been many organizations, domestic and foreign scientific researchersworking on the issue, and they have produced various results regardinggroundwater pollution (arsenic, heavy metal, minerals, or saltwater intrusion…). In this paper, the authors assess groundwater quality by using the water quality index (WQI) to transform complex data into simple indicators that are easy to understand, and let people in the studied areas be aware of the pollution issue of the water resources they are using. Groundwater samples are collected from national monitoring wells and from exploitation works in the area. Indicators such as pH, TDS (total dissolved solids), total hardness (TH), total alkalinity (Na ++ K +), sulfate (SO42-), chloride (Cl), and nitrate ( NO3) are used to calculate WQI values.The WQI values of the middle Pleistocene aquifers of Ca Mau Peninsula range from 36.09 to 1,344. Based on these values, authors have classified groundwater samples into 5 groups of different qualities, from the very high quality to the unusable one. The very high quality accounts for 14% of the samples; good quality accounts for 49%, average quality accounts for 24%, poor quality accounts for 7%, and unusable accounts for 6% of the total samples.There is about 10% of the samples exceeding permissible limits of TDS, whereas the sulfate and chloride range from 20% to 21%. Samples of poor and unusable qualityare mainlyfrom Soc Trang province. Most of themhavethe TDS levels greater than 1, and some have an abnormally high level ofsulfatewhen compared with other samples in the area. The study hasyielded a more comprehensive assessment of groundwater quality, allowing regulators to plan water resources more reasonably and be able togive in time advices tothe people.

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“…Results of the study also revealed that, except for As, the elevated concentrations of Pb, Cd, Ni, and Cr found in the indoor soil samples in all of the informal e-waste processing facilities at Bui Village were 19.99, 17.12, 4.72, and 1.70 times, respectively, higher than those from Nhuan Trach Village, which were significant at p<0.001. However, the As concentration in the indoor soil samples at Nhuan Trach Village was slightly higher than that at Bui Village (p<0.05), which may be attributable to the releases not only from natural source, but also from other sources such as pesticide use and smelting operations in other areas [44][45][46].…”

Section: Results and Discussion 1) Concentrations Of Heavy Metals In mentioning

confidence: 79%

Environmental Pollution of Heavy Metals in a Vietnamese Informal E-waste Processing Village

Ngo

Nguyen³

et al. 2020

App. Envi. Res.

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Inappropriate handlings of informal e-waste processing have increasingly become a global environmental and public health issue of concern. This study was conducted to quantify the concentrations of five heavy metals found in the environmental media at an exposed village and a reference village in Northern Vietnam. The correlations between a pair of the heavy metals found in a medium, and between a pair of the environmental media was found. The results showed that drinking water was safe for heavy metal exposure in both studied villages. However, at the exposed village, the levels of the heavy metals found in indoor soil were, in descending order, Pb (678.42 ± 846.11 mg kg -1 ) > Ni (148.77± 163.80 mg kg -1 ) > Cr (61.99 ± 42.50 mg kg -1 ) > As (7.62 ± 3.33 mg kg -1 ) > Cd (6.34 ± 12.39 mg kg -1 ). The levels of Pb, Cd, Cr, and Ni in indoor soil and surface dust in the exposed village were significantly higher than those in the reference village at p<0.001. The average concentrations of Pb, Cd, Cr, Ni and As in indoor soil were 3.57, 8.78, 1.90, 4.41, and 1.08 times, respectively, higher than those in outdoor soil at p<0.001. The levels of Pb and Cd found in indoor soil at the exposed village were 9.69 and 3.17 time, respectively, higher than the maximum allowable limits in Vietnam. Significant correlations between the pairs of the heavy metals in a medium and between the pair of the environmental media was found at the exposed village. This finding suggested that inappropriate activities conducted at an informal e-waste processing facility could be a major contributor to the heavy metal contaminations. This study highlighted the importance of release mitigation of a hazardous heavy metal from an informal e-waste processing facility to prevent its potential effects on human health.

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Arsenic exposure to drinking water in the Mekong Delta

Cited by 34 publications

References 40 publications

A Review of the Integrated Effects of Changing Climate, Land Use, and Dams on Mekong River Hydrology

A Review of the Integrated Effects of Changing Climate, Land Use, and Dams on Mekong River Hydrology

Assessment of groundwater quality of middle – Upper pleistocene aquifer in Ca Mau peninsula

Environmental Pollution of Heavy Metals in a Vietnamese Informal E-waste Processing Village

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