Pesticide, Nutrients and Antibiotics

Main activities in the project part „ Pesticides, nutrients, antibiotics in the Mekong Delta” are field research on the following topics

1. Environmental footprint of agricultural practices with respect to surface water pollution (PhD thesis La Thi Nga, jointly supervised with INRES - Plant Nutrition, University of Bonn)
2. Development of risk assessment (hot-spot) maps for drinking water quality (pesticides and antibiotics) in the Mekong Delta (PhD thesis Nguyen Dang Chau, jointly supervised with INRES – Soil Science, University of Bonn)
3. Risk Assessment of surface-, and groundwater quality associated with drinking and irrigation purposes for selected nutrients, heavy metals and microbial pollution in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam (PhD thesis Gert-Jan Wilbers, jointly supervised with INRES - Plant Nutrition, University of Bonn

The pesticide monitoring campaign started August 2008 and ended September 2009. To date, surface water samples taken between August 2008 and April 2009 are analysed. Thirteen of the fifteen target compounds (buprofezin, butachlor, cypermethrin, difenoconazole, endosulfan sulphate, fenobucarb, fipronil hexaconazole, isoprothiolane, profenofos, pretilachlor, propanil and propiconazole) were detected in water samples taken at the two study sites from field discharges and irrigation canals. The detection frequencies are shown in figure 1.

By Zita Sebesvari, Toan Pham Van

By Toan Pham Van, Fabrice Renaud, Zita Sebesvari