1. IntroductionIn some countries, arsenic is the most important chemical pollutant in groundwater and drinking water. The Bengal delta region is particularly affected as an estimated 35 million people have been drinking arsenic-rich water for the past 20–30 years (Smedley and Kinniburgh, 2002). Examination for arsenical dermato-logic symptoms in 29 thousand people showed that 15% had skin lesions (Chowdhury et al., 2000). Regions with arsenic-rich drinking water can be found around the globe (Smedley and Kinniburgh, 2002). Natural contamination of groundwater by arsenic is also an emerging issue in some countries of Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar (Berg et al., 2001; Buschmann et al., submitted for publication; Polya et al., 2005). Vulnerable areas for arsenic contamination are typically young Quaternary deltaic and alluvial sediments comprising highly reducing aquifers. Chronic levels of 50 μg arsenic/L can cause health problems after 10–15 years of exposure (Smith et al., 2000). The development of symptoms of chronic arsenic poisoning ( arsenicosis ) is strongly dependent on exposure time and the resulting accumulation in the body. The various stages of arsenicosis are characterized by skin pigmentation, keratosis, skin cancer, effects on the cardiovascular and nervous system, and increased risk of lung, kidney and bladder cancer. The European Union allows a maximum arsenic concentration of 10 μg/L in drinking water, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends the same value. In contrast, developing countries are struggling to establish and implement measures to reach standards of 50 μg/L in arsenic affected areas. Drinking water supplies in Cambodia and Vietnam are dependent on groundwater resources (Berg et al., 2001, 2006; Feldman and Rosenboom, 2001; Fredericks, 2004). The Mekong and the Red River deltas are the most productive agricultural regions of South East Asia (see Fig. 1). Both deltas have young sedimentary deposits of Holocene and Pleistocene age. The ground waters are usually strongly reducing with high concentrations of iron, manganese, and (in some areas) ammonium. The Mekong and the Red River deltas are currently exploited for drinking water supply using installations of various sizes. In the last 7–10 years a rapidly growing rural population has stopped using surface water or water from shallow dug wells because they are prone to contamination by harmful bacteria. Instead, it has become popular to pump groundwater using individual private tube-wells, which is relatively free of pathogens. The Vietnamese capital Hanoi is situated in the upper part of the 11,000 km2 Red River delta, which is inhabited by 11 million people and is one of the most populous areas in the world. The exploitation of ground water in the city of Hanoi began more than 90 years ago and has since been expanded several times (Berg et al., 2001). Today, ten major well-fields are operated by water treatment facilities, which collectively process 650,000 m3/day. Due to naturally anoxic conditions in the aquifers, the ground waters contain large amounts of iron and manganese thatare removed in the Hanoi drinking water plants by aeration and sand filtration (Duong et al., 2003). The urban water treatment plants exclusively exploit the lower aquifers in 30–70 m depth, whereas private tube-wells predominantly pump groundwater from the upper aquifers at 12–45 m (Hydrogeological Division II, 2000).
Based on geological analogies to the Ganges delta, elevated arsenic concentrations in the aquifers of the Red River basin were expected (Berg et al., 2001). A first screening by us in 1998 confirmed this assumption and we studied the extent of arsenic contamination in a comprehensive survey from 1999 to 2000. The upper and lower Quaternary aquifers were investigated by analysing ground waters from small-scale tube-wells and pumped by the Hanoi drinking water plants.
Groundwater arsenic contamination was identified in the Cambodian Mekong delta area in 2000 (Feldman and Rosenboom, 2001), and has since been investigated and addressed through close collaboration of local authorities and NGOs. The first international paper on arsenic groundwater contamination in Cambodia was published by Polya et al. (2005).
In this paper, the arsenic levels in groundwater of the Mekong delta are presented including data for the Vietnamese delta part, which is reported for the first time. In addition to an overview of the magnitude of arsenic poisoning in this region, the limited information available
in the international literature on the geology and genesis of the Mekong and Red River delta is summarised
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